My Mom is Being Charged With Federal Embezzlement Over An Inheritance

brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Hey, I um am getting involved in my mom's estate. She's 74 years old. Um and her husband is 77 years old. They are both retired and they live on a income between social security and retirement of about $47,000 a year. My mom had inherited from her sister on a payable upon death account. Um um a fairly decent amount of money that she spent like within a month before um a family member contested the will. And 10 years later, my mom is being forced to pay that um money back to the tune of $160,000. And I my mom is not in the pos they own their house free and clear, but um I'm not sure exactly um how to navigate this next step. They're charging her with embezzlement because she has not paid this money back. Um so she can either go to jail um or um somehow if we can come up with some solable financial plan. So she's in credit card debt to the tune about 125,000. So, um, she does not qualify to put a loan against her house, um, which would it's probably around $250,000 value. I'm confused how she lost this. Yeah, exactly. Um, the payable on death is a simple thing. It is, but it um, unless she unless she fraudulently did a transaction, she there shouldn't be any criminal involved. The will the will does not supersede pay a ball and death. Well, according to the courts and the lawyers that we've had, which I'm not saying they were um quality lawyers at this point, I mean, it's just been in the court system for 10 years that it's just been back and forth between that lawyer and this this is my aunt's estate and when she died, she didn't the lawyer that designed her will um 3 months prior to her passing from cancer was um he left his his her husband completely out of the will, didn't acknowledge him, didn't recognize him. So that's why part of this reclaimable estate um comes into play because they were married over 15 years. So he's entitled to 50% of her um reclaimable estate, which she had left the house to my mom also um with her daughter. So they're co-owners on that house. And what's the status of that house? He's living there. He's living there. My The whole plan was my aunt to um So, she's a co-owner on it, but nobody's but there's no ruling against her on that. Correct. Why can you offset that? Hey, it's George. That's right. I've been here the whole time just creeping. Kind of like the creepy spammers and scammers out there using and selling your personal data. Not cool, guys. Not cool. And that's why you need to check out Delete Me. Delete Me will find and remove your info from all of these data broker sites to reduce the risk of spam and scam in your life. Delete Me has already removed my info from over 250 websites that don't have any business having it. And as a Ramsay fan, you'll get 20% off all of their plans, which comes out to less than N bucks a month. So after this clip, go sign up and take control of your privacy at jointdeiteme.com/ramsey or click the link in the description to get the deal. All right, back to the call. Why can you offset that? Well, we we offered to give him the house in exchange because he's lived there all these years, but he doesn't want the house because um he's in the early stages of dementia and his family just wants the money. Could you sell the house? Then sell the house. Well, the the other person that owns the house isn't on board to sell the house. My aunt had given when she wrote in the deed like she gave us a dollar amount like if we wanted to buy each other out this would be the dollar amount. So I presented that offer to the other owner and said hey you know I'll buy you out and she's like I don't want to sell and I'm like okay what do I do now? Then the lawyer says that I have to do a partition y lawsuit in order to force the sale which kind of goes to public auction instead of market. So you get half the price of what you would if you market but no it doesn't necessarily go to public auction. a partition sale can just demand the sale within 90 days and you put a real estate agent on it. Okay. So that so I know that that's an option. That's where the money needs to come from cuz apparently she's got to pay this back. I'm a little shocked. I I'm not an attorney, but I was under the impression pay on death uh superseded any will and and I but I don't know. I'm I'm not an attorney and I'm certainly not an attorney. Why didn't she put her husband in the will? Was she of sound mind? Is that what he came back to and said? No, she was of sound mind. she he he doesn't read or he doesn't write and she was afraid that his family would take advantage of him because they've always just been like that. So she put my mom in charge so that my mom would always make sure that he had a place to live, the taxes and insurance were always paid and yada yada yada. So um that was the ultimate plan, but of course he we can't talk to him or anything because of this case that's been happening. So, yeah, I'm going to force the sale of the other house and find the money to pay this back. The your your mom and dad's house, what's it worth? Uh, around 250. Okay. And the balance on this judgment is how much? Uh, 160. Okay. And she's got 120 in credit card debt. Right. So, I don't like these. I don't like anything in this conversation. And you don't either. It's not fun. Um, but before I go to jail, I'm selling my house. Well, that and I they live in Ohio, so I wasn't sure that um I don't I my lawyer's checking in to see what those laws are if they can force that sale or that lean on that sale. No, I'm talking about your mom and dad's house, right? But yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's in Ohio. This property and this thing is happening. They have changed this. What I'm what I'm also confused about is are they saying because it was a federally insured bank that she wrongly took the money on a pod account on a paid on death account and they're calling that a federal crime? Well, that's she's actually been charged with a federal crime. Correct? Yes. You're sure? Yes. Yes. Most definitely. Okay. Then they had they had to then they had to because it's a federally insured an an FDIC bank that you know monkeying with them makes it a federal crime is the problem. But I don't understand how she monkeyed with them. I think it's a I thought I thought it was a civil matter but I'm again I'm not an attorney. I'm I'm just a ghast at this whole story. So um that's what our we went from a our paid because he doesn't do our paid lawyer. He doesn't do criminal law. Um, and again, it's this it's my uncle's family that's forcing the state to to file these charges against it's not the state, it's the fed. Um, yeah. Okay. Okay. So, so that's FBI saying that if you monkey with a federal bank, it's the FBI that files the charges. Well, the that's what we don't understand the embezzlement charges because technically she was entitled to this money upon death. I don't understand them either. It doesn't make sense at all. If you were if you did a fraudulent transaction and stole the money out of the account, I can imagine that the feds would get down on your head. That makes sense. But this was not fraudulent in any way. It was simply functioning off of the pod, the paid on death. I don't know. Again, I'm just I'm practicing law here on the air, which is really dumb cuz I'm not any good at it. So, um All right. So, I Yeah, I I'm forcing the sale of the other house with a petition. If I can't pull that off, your mom and dad have to sell their personal home if there's no other way to stop these criminal charges because I'm not putting a 74 year old in jail. I I will sell my home before I do that. I'll sell her home before I do that. Um, so I but I can't even imagine how we got here, but you don't sound like someone that's blowing this out. It sounds like you actually know what you're talking about. And so that makes me think I don't cuz I don't know how we got here. Wow. Scary, man. People, do your will. Tell everybody in the will how it's working and then tell the rest of them to shut up before you die. If you're going to piss people off, do it before you die. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your