The State Attorney's Office announced the filing of criminal charges in the financial exploitation of a 97-year-old Miami-Dade resident with dementia.
The announcement was made at a news conference Friday afternoon held by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle at the Office of the State Attorney in Miami.
According to the SAO, Natsky Nelson, 48, and Jose Pierre Toussaint, 55, stole roughly $216,000 from the victim, 97-year-old Lorraine Laderman.
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Laderman required special care for her dementia, so she hired Nelson, a home health services aide, back in October 2017.
The State Attorney’s Office said the victim was known to be frugal. Her son spotted suspicious transactions, and alerted investigators.
The scheme started with Nelson making $21,000 in ATM withdrawals from the victim’s bank account, prosecutors said.
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The fraud escalated when Pierre-Toussaint allegedly became involved — investigators said he opened a business account with the mobile payment company Square Inc. and accepted 81 debit card transactions from the victim’s debit card over several years.
According to Rundle, Laderman "worked hard all her life as a financial advisor" before her death in February 2021.
"This has got to resonate with so many of us. There are people we know, your neighbors, your loved ones, as happened to these families that we know," Fernandez Rundle said. "We need to be sure that we are looking out for our elderly population. These issues and elder exploitation touches all of our hearts and never fails to shock. How could someone do that? We often say."
Nelson is being held on a $125,000 bond, while Toussaint remains at large.
Rundle was joined by Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and City of Miami Police Chief Manuel A. Morales at the news conference.
