WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2021) Some 10,000 people in the United States become victims of guardianship annually because the Federal government is not giving the issue enough attention, Center for Estate Administration Reform (CEAR) Executive Director Rick Black told Sputnik.
"We estimate that approximately 10,000 new victims occur every year, funneling nearly $10 billion to the network of people who create them - long-term care facilities, attorneys, professional guardians and others within that network. It's big business," Black said. "So, my fear is if we don't do something about it... organized crime is even more organized, it's going to really take this over. And that is frightening because it's already out of control."
Black noted that CEAR has either counseled or researched some 4,000 cases since they started working on the issue in 2014.
"Approximately $300 billion are acquired by third parties through the act of a guardianship or conservatorship. So, the estimates are 1.3 million adults," he said. "No one really knows the exact number because the federal government and state governments have decided it's not important to measure. And that's a complete fallacy because we've been identifying since 1986 that this is a problem. But the American Bar Association, the National Guardianship Association and every state bar association, which are very powerful lobbyists, have effectively blocked any ability to introduce reforms that would stop the victimization."
Black explained that the most important thing CEAR educates and advocates for victims of fraudulent adult guardianships and conservatorships and other forms of estate trafficking.
"These are crimes committed by predatory attorneys who have leveraged the dysfunction of the United States' equity court system," he said.
Black pointed out he was personally affected when his father-in-law fell victim upon turning 80 and the family recognized he was vulnerable.
"When we took action to make sure that he was closer to us because he lived in Las Vegas and we were living in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is about 2000 miles apart, he said he was fine and his landlord and female friend of 30 years also said he was fine," Black said. "Then, six months later, we discovered that she had stolen $220,000 from him and he didn't even know it because he was so impaired with Alzheimer-type dementia. We went to go rescue him. She took him captive."
Black local law enforcement would not engage in the case but recommended that the family calls an attorney and files for guardianship.
"That was the beginning of a nightmare that no American should have to experience, because it was one thing to know she is exploiting my father-in-law and stealing from him. But the whole system is going to protect her at his expense and his daughter's expense - his only child - and our entire family's expense," Black said. "So, when we realized what we were up against and we did some research and saw that they were doing this on a routine basis, we then started researching those cases. And eventually we got the Nevada Attorney General to engage, which yielded ten criminal convictions, ten criminal convictions of attorneys and professional guardians who were using guardianship to cover up a criminal enterprise."
Black noted that he assumed the judicial system was a sanctuary and a court room a place where the law and truth are respected and the public is protected, but found out quite the opposite.
"What I found very quickly is that they have no interest in protecting my father-in-law, my wife or me. They intend to exploit us. And they did. Most Americans, until they've been in one of those courtrooms, they have no idea that that can happen routinely. Sadly, it does," he said.
Black spoke with Sputnik at a rally in Washington, DC held in support of US pop singer Britney Spears who has been in a conservatorship for 13 years and unable to make decisions for herself such as whether to have a child. Black noted that he came to Washington, DC from North Carolina to attend the event after learning about it from social media.
"Today, there's a rally in Los Angeles. There's a rally in New York. There's a rally here in Washington, DC. A lot of the groups are taking advantage of the face and voice that Britney has given the movement. This is long overdue. It has been building really since World War II in the United States," he said.
Black emphasized that the Spears case is no different than thousands of others, noting that she was vulnerable when younger but did not need to be placed in a conservatorship.
"The attorneys want to create as many conservatorships as they can because it's like an annuity. Once you're locked in it, you can't get out," he said. "All they do is keep telling the judge - I need a $1 million because I did this or a $100,000 because I did that. The judges will just award the money because it's coming out of Britney's estate."
Black explained that the only thing unique about Britney's is that she was that lucid, vibrant, smart, had lots of money and it went on for 13 years before anyone on the inside said, maybe we don't need to be doing this anymore.
"What we're going to see today and going forward, sadly, is all the gamesmanship as they figure out how to keep this thing going on for as long as they can. My projection is that she'll get freed in a year or so and it'll cost her another $5-$6 million. But it's completely wasteful."
Black expressed hope the Spears case will bring about reforms to stop the victimization and that CEAR goes to Washington, DC often to lobby for the changes that are needed at a federal level because the decisions - orders - are all made at the county level and involve some 15,000 judges.
"The variability at the lowest level where these orders are signed is very, very high and without a degree of oversight. That is going to create more victimization, so we're here to lobby. Britney's case is helping to bring that attention to the problem. What we're saying is accountability, zealous counsel, free counsel for these people so that everybody understands what this costs, what the risks are of conservatorship and guardianship. I'm confident now we're going to finally get some help."
In June, 39-year-old Spears addressed a Los Angeles court with a heartfelt request to return her freedom and criticized her family's actions, saying she was traumatized and unhappy under the conservatorship. Spears said she was not allowed to visit her friends, was forced to work long hours against her will and was drugged when she disobeyed.
In 2008, a court granted the petition filed by the pop singer's once-estranged father, James Spears, to assume full control of her life after she experienced a series of meltdowns and two hospitalizations for psychological evaluations.
Britney Spears tried last November to free her from the conservatorship, but the court then again sided with her father. Spears' finances are co-managed by her father and the financial company Bessemer Trust.
