Skip to main content
Office of the County Counsel
Office of the County Counsel

Protecting against financial abuse

We work closely with the Public Guardian, Adult Protective Services, and the District Attorney to promptly investigate and remedy serious allegations of Financial Elder Abuse.  When appropriate, we assist the Public Guardian in obtaining emergency conservatorships for individuals who are incompetent or substantially unable to resist fraud, undue influence, or duress.  Below are a few examples of our efforts (initials are randomly applied and do not correspond to actual names):  

  • A.B. was heavily involved in a romance scam, believing she was engaged to a man she had never met.  At her alleged fiancé’s urging, A.B. wired him over $600,000.  We were able to pursue an emergency temporary conservatorship for A.B., allowing the Public Guardian to quickly arrange to protect A.B.’s estate from further loss.  After she was placed on conservatorship, A.B. was still under tremendous pressure from scammers.  A.B. was able to take out a $150,000 loan and immediately gave away the money to scammers.  We successfully canceled the loan because the lender was on notice that A.B. was under a conservatorship.   
  • C.D. was a victim of several international financial scams.  His pattern of giving away large sums of money caused his wife to file for divorce.  The family home was sold in the divorce proceedings.  C.D. immediately sent his portion of the sale proceeds to scammers.  As a result of these scams, C.D. ultimately became homeless.  We obtained a temporary conservatorship for C.D., appointing the Public Guardian as his conservator.  As a result, the Public Guardian was able to protect C.D. from losing more money.  
  • E.F. was under a conservatorship managed by her niece.  We were notified that there were discrepancies in the niece’s accounting.  We discovered several instances where the niece misused the funds.  We filed an action to recover damages for the stolen funds and ultimately obtained a $100,000 monetary settlement in favor of E.F.’s estate.      
  • G.H., who suffers from dementia, was swindled out of her home.  Her son, acting through a power of attorney, sold the property to a home-flipping company for less than fair market value in exchange for a promise to make repairs and split the proceeds when the home was re-sold.  The Public Guardian became G.H.’s conservator and filed a legal action on behalf of G.H. to void the transaction and return the title to the home to G.H. After several months of litigation, we settled the lawsuit against the home-flipping company for $511,000 that came from the home sale proceeds.