Catch Me If You Can: How To Detect Trustee & Estate Fraud
Estate theft often goes undetected because family members cannot identify red flags or know how to investigate potential theft. This article identifies and discusses those red flags and the benefits of forensic accounting.
March 14, 2024 at 10:38 AM
5 minute read
Expert Analysis
A former attorney was recently accused of embezzlement in connection with a long-running scheme to embezzle funds from trusts for which he served as trustee. The attorney served as trustee for three family trusts with fiduciary responsibilities to protect, preserve, and pay expenditures for the benefit of the beneficiaries.
Instead, the attorney embezzled and misappropriated more than $600,000 from the trusts and used the proceeds for personal expenses, including purchasing a vehicle and a vacation home and paying his credit cards. The attorney was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay restitution to his victims.
Trustees and executors have a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of a trust or an estate. A breach of fiduciary duty happens when the fiduciary acts in their own best interest, such as using estate or trust assets for personal gain.
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