True Story of Elderly Scam

Transcript of Interview: “True Story of Elderly Scam”

Mike Barnes: I think a lot of us worry about our aging parents because you never know when something could happen as far as them getting scammed by someone. They seem so vulnerable so many times, 

Kim Barnes: And sometimes it can happen when people are afar and may not be paying attention quite as well. So today, we have an interesting interview for you. We have award-winning investigative journalist and author Stephen Michaud with us, who has written a book called Robert’s Story: A Texas Cowboy’s Troubled Life and Horrifying Death, which is the way to kind of get us started. So, Stephen, tell us what inspired you to write this book.

Stephen Michaud: The part about Robert’s story is that despite all of the stopgaps or whatever you would think would protect him, they failed. He and his family were at odds with one another. He didn’t want anybody to come out to his ranch, and unfortunately, he was not a very good judge of character because his attorney was a thief. Before anybody was able to step in and stop this, he died, and his entire fortune had gone over to the group that we call the wolves. What was once his ranch is now a foundation called the East Foundation. That was his name, Robert East, but no member of his family is part of the foundation, so the East Foundation doesn’t represent any Easts and probably never will. That’s the nickel tour.

Mike Barnes: But something like this really makes you realize how vulnerable especially aging parents can be to be open to scams.

Stephen Michaud: And vulnerable in that he had very rich and powerful friends. He was from a well-known family. He wasn’t some guy in a nursing home or some kind of facility where you might say, is he getting the best care possible? Well, he could afford any care he could get, but nobody could get to him. The conspirators contrived to keep him separated from his family, which in Texas can mean hundreds of miles. He was kind of a you-know-good days and bad days, and he was a horrible judge of character, so he was a perfect target for what they did to him. And then he died.

Kim Barnes: Unfortunately, money makes people do crazy things sometimes, and this was obviously a case where they were in it for the financial gain.

Stephen Michaud: Yes, they had gained his trust, and there wasn’t anybody around to step in. Had they stepped in, this might be something that’s common in these kinds of stories. He rebuffed members of his family who would come by and say, “How are you, Robert? What’s going on, Robert?” He was aware that he was isolated, he complained about it, but he was unable to do anything about it. He had plenty of age-related illnesses that could have been treated, but he refused to go to the doctor and instead chose a questionable physician who was brought onto the ranch allegedly to take care of him. She was part of the program.

Kim Barnes: As you investigated and learned so much about this situation, was there something that could have been done differently in terms of how it turned out?

Stephen Michaud: One thing that I learned kind of late in the story, because much of it had transpired before I showed up, was that nobody went to any adult assistance programs anywhere in Texas or anywhere else. There wasn’t this mechanism to come and say, “We’re from wherever, and we do want to see this,” with some muscle behind it. So, he was very much alone, and the authorities didn’t know anything about him until he was dead.

Kim Barnes: So, I guess the importance of getting like Adult Protective Services or some other law enforcement or whatever the situation might be, get them involved if you’re the one noticing these things?

Stephen Michaud: Absolutely. Everything was contained on the ranch out in the middle of nowhere.

Mike Barnes: This is the type of story where there are so many lessons to learn from it.

Stephen Michaud: What I learned in digging back through the story is that there was a remarkable unwillingness to confront what was going on. The family was alienated, and he discouraged anybody from coming to see him except on odd occasions. As it evolved, the attorneys started rewriting his will, jettisoning one version of it, and convincing him to sign a new version of it. By the time he died, he had signed everything away. There was nothing left to retrieve. And there was never a case made against these people. They were never charged, never taken into court. It’s not even an open case; there’s no case at all. According to one set of figures I have, they have $700 million of his money in this foundation called the East Foundation. Again, there are no Easts involved with the East Foundation.

Kim Barnes: Wow. So, are there other lessons that you learned from this?

Stephen Michaud: There was an unlikely hero in this story. A young Mexican kid whose parents worked on the ranch near the Rio Grande River. He was brought across the river and put in charge of Robert’s daily care—feeding him, washing him, that sort of thing. He spoke very little English when he was put in charge. The bad guys just said, “Well, he’s just a Mexican kid and all he’s doing is washing him; he doesn’t mean anything.” But the young man said, “This is not right.” And although he was putting himself in tremendous personal jeopardy—at the very least being sent back into Mexico and possibly physically harmed—he started tape-recording his conversations in the room with Robert and with Robert’s gang. They ignored him because he was basically a piece of furniture to them. He had hours and hours of tape-recorded conversations among these people, which belatedly came to the attention of the family, and they were able to act on it. But it was too late to save Robert’s life and too late to undo what had been done.

Mike Barnes: Fabulous story. I think we can all learn lessons from it. Hold the book up and show everyone the book because it is a true story, and we can all learn lessons from it.

Kim Barnes: There you go, that’s great. Yes, if you feel like your family members are in trouble, you’ve got to speak up. And this is a case where you can get all the details of this one situation in the book. Unfortunately, it did not end well for him. 

Stephen Michaud: He was kind of a character, the old guy. His family loved him and all the rest of it, but some of us get beyond 70 and can be a bit of a problem. He was not approachable. There were a couple of scenes with the family where they said, “Oh, you know, Robert is sure acting weird.” But when any approach of any sort was made, like for instance the idea of going to adult care, absolutely not. So, this was the outcome of allowing his isolation to set the stage for stealing his money and estate.

Kim Barnes: Very unfortunate. Thanks so much for sharing about your book.

Mike Barnes: I think it’s something that we all learned that any of us—my dad’s almost gotten scammed, your mom did get scammed. These are incredible stories and scary stories. This one is a true story, and they all can be good books. It just teaches us a lesson that we have to be careful.

Kim Barnes: For sure. Hey, if you have any other topics you’d like us to discuss, please let us know on Parenting Aging Parents.

*This transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or mistakes.