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After convincing the victim’s mother to give him power of attorney, Eugene Young, 69, of Mount Holly used a trust debit card more than 650 times at restaurants, movie theaters, hotels, car washes, gas stations and grocery stores, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachel A. Honig said.
The trust, which had more than $1 million in two bank accounts when Young got control of it, was established to provide for the supplemental care, maintenance, support, and education of the disabled senior, the U.S. attorney said.
According to complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Camden, Young, among other transactions:
- spent more than $1,700 on a sleeper sofa and loveseat that he had delivered to his home;
- booked himself a room at the Westin Wilmington in Delaware:
- forged the signature of the victim’s mother to write more than $29,000 worth of checks from a trust account;
- withdrew $94,000 in cash or cashier's checks;
- used a debit card 122 times to withdraw $122,000 from ATM machines;
- cashed more $21,400 in annuity checks that he was supposed to deposit into a trust account.
Young was finally stopped after skimming more than $350,000, Honig said.
He took a deal from the government, pleading guilty earlier this month to wire fraud, rather than go to trial.
Honig credited special agents of FBI’s Atlantic City Resident Agency, special agents of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and special agents of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with the investigation leading to the video-conferenced guilty plea secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Friedman of her Criminal Division in Camden.
U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez scheduled sentencing for June 7.
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