According to sources familiar with the inquiry, New York Attorney General Letitia James is looking into how several guardianship groups handle the financial and medical matters of elderly and infirm New Yorkers who are judged incapable of taking care of themselves.
The investigation, which is chaired by attorneys in the office’s charities section, comes after a year-long series that showed that some guardians took use of their positions for personal benefit, while others disregarded their vulnerable clients.
Judges frequently rely on guardianship agencies to look after the so-called unbefriend, or those who have no family or friends to care for them. Nevertheless, there is little control, authorities hardly ever visit wards, and the courts mostly use financial records to determine well-being. This oversight has resulted in neglect, abuse, and fraud.
- Advertisement -
New York Guardianship Services (NYGS) is one of the organizations under scrutiny. More than a dozen patients, including an elderly woman housed in a run-down house, had their requirements not met. NYGS fraudulently reported her living circumstances as “appropriate” while collecting $450 a month from her little salary. Following the discovery of this carelessness, a judge mandated that NYGS pay the lady $5,400. Even after an old man passed away and left the country, NYGS continued to collect money from him.
Although company officials have refused to comment on individual customers, they have stated that court-appointed examiners, who have the power to raise concerns, examined their work. But because there aren’t enough examiners in the system, monitoring is delayed and yearly exams take years to finish, which deprives judges of important data.
Despite not being recognized as a nonprofit by state and federal authorities, NYGS promoted itself as one. The attorney general’s office has previously looked into guardianship cases. It investigated Integral Guardianship Services ten years ago for fraudulently lending enormous sums of money to its senior executives while wards languished in nursing homes for longer than necessary. After the lawsuit was settled, Integral closed, giving hundreds of wards to other groups like NYGS. Investigations into NYGS and other successor organizations are currently underway. Amid mounting pressure on lawmakers and court officials to reform the guardianship system, the investigation was announced. To maintain a network of seasoned NGOs that help the unfriended, advocacy groups are arguing for more funding.
It’s unclear what Governor Kathy Hochul will say about guardianship before the legislative session begins. $1 million for a statewide guardianship hotline was allocated in last year’s budget. NYGS executives and the attorney general’s office have not responded to inquiries about the investigation. Guillermo Kiuhan, a lawyer for a former NYGS ward, hopes the inquiry will result in the authorities taking action to resolve the issues and stop more problems.
