The Caregiver's Game: Unraveling Financial Deceit in the Shadows of Dementia

The Caregiver's Game: Unraveling Financial Deceit in the Shadows of Dementia

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ EXPERT ENDORSEMENT: "A gift to adult children worrying about their older adult parent(s) halfway across the country or right in the same town. The detail provided by Mr. Wallace is instructive to adult children and professionals alike... Very well organized and well written and truly takes us behind the scenes of untangling the work of criminals who target older adults." — Peter A. Lichtenberg, PhD, ABPP Director, Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University Leading Researcher in Elder Financial Exploitation ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ READERS ARE CALLING IT: "A real eye-opener... It will tell you all you need to know and what to look out for if you suspect abuse of any kind." — Readers' Favorite " "A deeply moving, powerful cautionary tale... I highly recommend this book for its emotional grip and lasting impact." — Literary Book Reviews ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ My mother had everything under control until dementia took that control away. Then someone else took everything. At seventy-eight, Joell Fleming was sharp-tongued, fiercely independent, and had survived five marriages. She wasn't someone you could easily fool. But when cognitive decline began in 2013, she became vulnerable in ways no one understood, least of all her children living hundreds of miles away. Enter Esmarelda Gomez, a caregiver who knocked on the door one day with bagels and a smile. Within months, she wasn't just making meals, she was writing checks, attending doctor appointments, and methodically cutting Joell's family out of her life. By the time Joell died in March 2022, hundreds of thousands of dollars had vanished. Family heirlooms were being sold online. Her children had been removed from medical power of attorney. And Esmarelda had written herself into the will for $300,000. The forensic evidence was damning. Medical records showed that by January 2019, Joell scored 12 out of 30 on cognitive tests. Neurologists concluded she lacked capacity to make financial or legal decisions. Yet her longtime physician, her friend and neighbor, wrote a letter claiming she was perfectly capable, clearing the way for a new will. Eighteen months later, the same doctor diagnosed her with "advanced dementia." A forensic psychiatrist concluded the progression was medically impossible without catastrophic injury. Meanwhile, professional fiduciaries looked the other way as suspicious transactions piled up. Drawing on fifteen years in banking, Charles Wallace pieced together the trail. Credit cards used at stores near Esmarelda's home. Grocery bills that could feed five families. Storage units emptied of heirlooms. Over $100,000 in jewelry that disappeared. The deeper he dug, the more disturbing the pattern became. Esmarelda had done this before to an elderly man she married three months before his death in 2011, inheriting his house and $200,000. She'd been fired from a care giving agency for "inappropriately using client data," yet continued working privately. Then came the final twist: Ten days after the annuity payout was blocked, Esmarelda died. Or did she? A mismatched body weight at cremation. A death certificate from a hospital an hour from her home. No obituary. Utility bills sent to a mysterious email account after her death. Did she fake her death to escape prosecution? The Caregiver's Game exposes how predators infiltrate the lives of vulnerable seniors and how banks, attorneys, and Adult Protective Services failed to act despite glaring red flags. It arms families with hard-won knowledge: how to recognize elder financial abuse, vet caregivers, monitor accounts, and intervene before it's too late. One in ten families will face this. The predators are already looking for their next victim, and it might be your parents.