Pair Charged In Ripoff Of Elderly Woman; Abused POA To Take Title To Home, Drain Bank Account, Say Investigators; Stiffed Nursing Home Triggers Probe

In Washoe County, Nevada, The Reno Gazette Journal reports:

• Two Reno women in their 60s, including a real estate broker, are facing an August trial for alleged financially exploitation of an elderly woman. Peggy Viola Six, 63, an artist, and Robin Lee Benjamin, 64, a real estate broker who operates Market and Match home buying and selling system, pleaded not guilty Thursday morning to an indictment charging them with exploitation of an older or vulnerable person.

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• A Washoe County grand jury in March indicted the women on a charge of exploiting an 87-year-old woman. Six had the woman’s power of attorney due to her failing mental capacities, according to cout documents. Six and Benjamin are accused of draining the woman’s bank account and defrauding the woman of her home. Benjamin allegedly transferred ownership of the woman’s home to her name, and then tried to sell it for a $100,000 profit. [...] Officials estimate the woman was defrauded of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

• Authorities say the woman was placed in a local elder care facility until Six stopped paying for her care.(1) Ultimately, the woman became a ward of the state and currently resides at a group home in Carson City.

For more, see Two Reno women arrested on suspicion of bilking elderly woman.

(1) Reportedly, Washoe Deputy District Attorney Dania Reid, a civil prosecutor who represents the county’s public guardian office, said the case was referred to her office once Six stopped paying for the woman’s care facility. During an investigation, it was discovered Six had allegedly used the woman’s money to buy a motor home and a car, and fraudulently transferred the woman’s home to Benjamin, the story states. Reid reportedly said her office is working to sell the woman’s home so that she can receive the proceeds.