98-Year-Old Man Conned Out of $400,000
A New York man was sentenced to spend weekends in jail for an entire year and had to pay $388,063 in compensation after he reportedly forged several checks and transferred thousands of dollars from accounts belonging to a 98-year-old man. Harry Abrams pleaded guilty to charges of grand larceny, forgery, and money laundering in this incident of elder financial abuse.
The victim, 98-year-old Emanuel Baetich, was friends with Abrams for years and Abrams claimed he was like a father figure to him. Baetich was hospitalized in 2009 and 2010 when Abrams stole the money. CNN Justice stated Abrams used the money to pay for a Puerto Rico vacation, and tried to aid his companies that were failing among other things.
This incident is a clear example of the notion that money almost always changes people. Despite being friends with this elderly man for several years, Abrams still had the audacity to steal money from him regardless of the consequence. Most people like to believe that nothing will ever come between friendship, and while in some cases that may be true, this incident of elder financial abuse proves otherwise. Now the 76-year-old man has to face jail time for a full year. Although it is only on weekends, it doesn’t take away from the severity of the incident and the man’s sentence. In addition, after spending time trying to get money to help himself, he now has to spend over $300,000 in compensation to Baetich.
