Does Crime Pay?
September 24
Is it any wonder why so many people commit what our justice systems terms, White Collar Crimes? I can tell you why they do it, because there is rarely if any consequence to their crimes. The system rewards criminal behavior by making it so difficult and costly for the victims to bring their criminals crime to a court of law in order to prosecute and regain the money that was stolen.
For instance, my mother, created a Family Trust before she passed away nearly 5 years ago. My brother, who lived with her at the time she was diagnosed with lung cancer, was made the Trustee and Executor of the family trust.
The trust contained real estate, stocks and cash. After 4 years and countless dollars spent on legal fees trying to get the Trustee to make a final distribution and close the trust, my 2 sisters and I hired yet another attorney to try to get it resolved. Communication with our brother/trustee was very limited due to strained and alienated relationship with his sisters. Our legal advisor suggested that we vote him out as trustee and get a court order making one of the sisters the new trustee. We were relieved to think it was about to come to an end. The new trustee (my sister) took the court order to the bank where the cash account was held, only to learn our brother had wire transferred all of the money to a Gold company purchasing $250,000 in bullion months prior. Robbing my parents children and grandchildren of their rightful inheritance.
In order for us to even attempt to retrieve the absconded funds, with no guarantees, from our brother who has committed a crime by Nevada state laws, we must hire a criminal attorney and a private investigator to locate our brother so he can be served with a summons to appear in court. If the papers can not be served directly to him, he can not be sued. The cost of this process? Depending on how long it takes to prove the case against him, physically find him, approximately $30,000. If he even still has the gold/money in his possession, there are no guarantees we will get our inheritance back. A crime has been committed, yet it is up to us to take all the steps and shoulder the financial burden to bring him to justice.
We are left with the responsibly for taxes, final accounting and expenses related to closing the trust. He on the other hand, walks away with no responsibly and all of the money. We are stuck with all the legal/court fees and the feeling of being raped. He has absolutely no consequence for his criminal behavior. You tell me, does crime pay?
0 comments