The Elder Exploitation Fraud Triangle

 

The Elder Exploitation Fraud Triangle (click the zoom feature/scroll over image to read box descriptions, hold mouse or finger to scroll diagram and click crossed arrow to view full size PDF or direct download PDF Diagram here).

Adopted from Criminologist Donald Cressey Creator of the Fraud Triangle. ACFE; Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Fraud Triangle.

“Trusted persons become trust violators when they conceive of themselves as having a financial problem which is non-shareable, are aware this problem can be secretly resolved by violation of the position of financial trust, and are able to apply to their own conduct in that situation verbalizations which enable them to adjust their conceptions of themselves as trusted persons with their conceptions of themselves as users of the entrusted funds or property.” 1  

1 Donald R. Cressey, Other People’s Money (Montclair: Patterson Smith, 1973) p. 30.

 

 Predictive Personality Pattern Indicators – Dark Triad, Cluster B Personality & The Elder Exploitation Fraud Triangle 

 

Predictive Personality Pattern Indicators – Dark Triad, Cluster B Personality & The Elder Exploitation Fraud Triangle (click the zoom feature /scroll over image to read box descriptions, hold mouse or finger to scroll diagram and click crossed arrow to view full size PDF or direct download PDF Diagram here).

Diagram Adopted from Dark Triad – Cluster B Personality Research, the Fraud Triangle and Combined with Leading Undue Influence Models & Elder Exploitation Statutes.

Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Disorders. Exploring the Dark Side: Relationships between the Dark Triad Traits and Cluster B Personality Disorder Features. 

Undue Influence Key Indicia In Fraud & Elder Exploitation Matters

Leading Undue Influence Expert Court Witnesses.

» The Bernatz SCAM Model,

bernatzexperts.com/areas-of-expertise/scam%E2%84%A2-model

» Bennett Blum M.D., Undue influence-Behavioral Models,

bennettblummd.com/undue_influence_models.html

UNDUE INFLUENCE IN AN ESTATE PLAN

https://yourlawcounsel.com/undue-influence-in-an-estate…/

A probate judge will look for a claimant to prove that the will either

1) Leaves property in an unexpected manner, cutting out close family members in favor of others without an obvious explanation before their death

2) The will-maker may have been particularly trusting of, or dependent on, the influencer, sometimes referred to as a confidential relationship

3) Frailty, illness, or fear of abandonment make the will-maker susceptible to undue influence

4) The confidential relationship influencer took outright advantage of the will-maker and directly benefited by substituting a will of their choosing and not the will-makers

Document Suspicions Circumstances of Elder Abuse, Exploitation Fraud & Undue Influence, Such As:

 (1) the identified victim’s susceptibility or vulnerability to influence (including among other things issues related to age, physical or mental deterioration, emotional state, education, finances, etc.);

 (2) a confidential relationship between the supposed perpetrator and identified victim;

(3) beneficiary’s active involvement or participation in procuring the legal instrument in question;

 (4) secrecy concerning the existence of the transaction or legal changes, or the events occurring in haste;

(5) lack of independent advice related to that transaction or new legal document;

(6) changes in the identified victim’s attitude toward others;

(7) discrepancies between the identified victim’s behavior and previously expressed intentions;

(8) the unjust or unnatural nature of the terms of the transaction or new legal instrument (new will, new trust, etc.);

(9) anonymous criticism of other potential beneficiaries made to the identified victim;

 (10) suggestion, without proof, to the identified victim that other potential beneficiaries had attempted to physically harm him or her;

(11) withholding mail;

(12) limiting telephone access;

(13) limiting visitation;

 (14) limiting privacy when victim is with others (which conduct is generally known as “chaperoning”); (13) discussion of transaction at an unusual or inappropriate time;

 (15) consummation of the transaction at an unusual place;

 (16) use of multiple persuaders against a single vulnerable person;

 (18) demand the business be finished at once;

(19) extreme emphasis on the consequences of delay;

 (20) obtaining a lawyer for the victim;

 (21) using victim’s assets ‐ such as property, money, credit cards, etc.;

(22) becoming conservator, trustee, beneficiary, executor, etc.;

(23) obtaining access to bank accounts;

 (24) obtaining access to safety deposit boxes;

(25) having the victim name the perpetrator on Power of Attorney forms;

 (26) isolating the testator and disparaging family members;

(27) mental inequality between the decedent and the beneficiary;

 (28) reasonableness of the will or trust provision;

(29) presence of the beneficiary at the execution of the will;

(30) presence of the beneficiary on those occasions when the testator expressed a desire to make a will;

(31) recommendation by the beneficiary of a lawyer to draw the will;

(32) knowledge of the contents of the will by the beneficiary prior to execution;

 (33) giving of instructions on preparation of the will by the beneficiary to the lawyer drawing the will; and,  (34) securing of witnesses to the will by the beneficiary.