California Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

Pearl I. Westmoreland, 79, has been sentenced to spend over nine years in person for exploiting an elderly person. Westmoreland was also found guilty of aggravated white-collar crime and money laundering. In addition to 110 months in prison, she has been ordered to make a restitution of over $218,000 to the victim’s estate. She also must reimburse the state of Florida for prosecution and investigation costs.

Westmoreland is accused of stealing from her elderly victim and using his assets for her personal use. The victim was a nursing home resident who used to live in a trailer park belonging to Westmoreland. He signed a power of attorney document with the expectation that she would take care of him.

After he signed over his power of attorney, Westmoreland transferred $200,000 that belonged to him into her accounts. She understated the assets when she filed an application for Medicaid benefits for him, defrauding Florida’s Medicaid program of over $61,000.

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A man charged with embezzling over $90,000 from his aunt says the charges against him are false. Pastor Gene W. Amason of Church Alive in Magee, Mississippi says he will not resign from the church that he cofounded with his wife and that his congregation supports him 100%.

Amason was arrested last month at his church. He has been charged with three counts of embezzlement—a $91,258.67 total. Amason claims that the agency never interviewed him before he was arrested. He was released from jail on a $60,000 bond.

The pastor says that his aunt, who has Alzheimer’s disease and lives in an assisted living facility, had given him power of attorney, but that last year, she started accusing him of stealing her money. Another relative was then given power of attorney for his aunt.

When a person (known as the principal) bestows another person with the power of attorney, they are giving that person the authority to act as their agent, known as their attorney-in-fact. Depending on the type of power of attorney that is bestowed, an attorney-in-fact may be able to make decisions regarding the principal’s heath—known as the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care—or their finances, called the Durable Power of Attorney for Finances.

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A 76-year-old woman who says she was duped into signing her power of attorney over to a couple has finally gotten her house and cars back. Euna Dement, now bedridden and living in a nursing home, says that last year, Jeanette Tidwell and her husband Tommy Lee Tidwell, Sr. conned her into signing over her power of attorney to them. Dement says that the couple later put her in a nursing home and left her there. The Tidwells are being charged with felony theft and exploitation of the elderly. They are scheduled to stand trial beginning March 5.

Last February, Dement had nearly $92,000 in her bank account. One month later, there was just a little over $1000 left. Her home and her two cars were also gone. She also says that the Tidwells stole her Sony television and her sofa.

A lawyer helped Dement get her cars and home back.

Power of Attorney:
A power of attorney is a legal document that bestows authority on the appointed person to act on behalf of the principal (the person bestowing the power of attorney). The person given the power of attorney is called the attorney-in-fact. A power of attorney lasts until the principal terminates the power of attorney, becomes incapacitated, or passes away.

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Exiled Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the brother of the sultan of Brunei, is accusing the couple that he gave power of attorney over his affairs of stealing from him. The prince filed a lawsuit against British attorney Thomas Derbyshire and his wife Faith Zaman, saying that they used his fortune to buy two California beach homes, $33,000 of furniture, $30,000 of jewelry, and $2,800 of electronic appliances. The prince says his losses are as high as $23 million. He also claims that the couple also persuaded him to sell his $25-million, 23-room Long Island mansion for $12 million.

The prince had hired Derbyshire, an expert in fraud and money laundering, to represent him amidst allegations that he embezzled $3 billion from Brunei. He gave the couple power of attorney. In his complaint filed in a New York Court, the Prince claims that the couple then proceeded to engage in “numerous acts of theft and deception, self-dealing, embezzlement and fraud, all designed to benefit themselves and their family members, to the severe detriment of their clients and employers. The words ‘faithless servants’ do not do justice to the scope of their perfidy.”

Zaman, who was named managing director of the Prince’s Palace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, is said to have moved into the hotel's $10,000 a night suite while hiring her brother, Arzi Zamarni to be “operations manager”—a role accompanied by a very generous salary.
In the Prince’s court documents, Zaman is accused of using a corporate credit card to misappropriate $750,000, while Derbyshire is accused of spending $280,000 on his card. Zaman also allegedly payed a company that she created a $5 million check that had been made out to one of the Prince’s companies. An order of $4.1 million worth of plasma TV’s and equipment was paid for by the Prince but never arrived—even though there had been an additional delivery charge of $230,000. Derbyshire and Zaman are denying the accusations.

Power of Attorney
A power of attorney gives a person the authority to make legal decisions, including financial and property decisions, on behalf of the Principal—the person who gave them that power. A power of attorney is usually given to someone when the principal cannot be present to sign documents or has become too ill to do so.

Continue reading "Couple With Power Of Attorney Stole From Him, Says Prince of Brunei" »