Man scammed when dealing with late partner's estate
MILWAUKEE (WITI) — Battling cancer is not an easy fight, not only for the person who has the disease, but for everyone around them. One man lost his fight, but his family lost even more.
When Erik Varvir lost his partner Vernon to leukemia, he immediately took steps to put his estate in order to protect his family.
“He made Ken, the attorney, the administrator of the will, because the family had used him for years,” Varvir said.
Three weeks later, Vernon was gone.
Erik and Vernon’s stepson went to attorney, Ken Hoesch to settle the estate.
“He was supposed to bring over copies of the master copies of the trust and all the paperwork. He never did and that is where it started. He kept giving us excuses,” Varvir said.
“I`ll be in court next week. I`ll talk to the judge in two weeks. It just went on and on and on,” Vernon’s stepson said.
After months without answers, postal inspectors began an investigation, and found the money from Vernon’s estate was gone.
All of it.
He had looted the estate. He did it fairly quickly. We didn`t realize it, but he had started to withdraw money from Vernon`s trust two weeks after he died in $30,000 increments,” Varvir said.
“It`s devastating, especially to find out it`s a professional is the one that did that. They are supposed to be watching out for you, not taking advantage of you,” Vernon’s stepson said.
Postal inspectors say there were multiple victims and more than $800,000 in losses among the cases.
“It was quite substantial loss, because it involved people’s estates — everything they had saved all of their lives. It was just taken from them,” U.S. Postal Inspector Gil Webb said.
“The level of betrayal is indescribable, you know, and Vernon wasn`t here to, you know, who speaks for him? It was Vernon`s money,” Varnir said.
Postal inspectors say the attorney spent the money he stole on very expensive trips, and an art collection.
He was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison, and was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution.