Florida man allegedly posed as a nephew and doctor to steal 71-year-old nurse's home and $300K. How to protect yourself from power of attorney fraud

The man “appears to have originally encountered the victim through associations with the victim’s church,” according to a statement by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle (1).

Bien-Aime is accused of manipulating legal documents, including power of attorney (POA), to gain access to Bertrand’s assets, defrauding her out of about $300,000 and taking control of her home.

He allegedly did this by posing as her doctor to Bertrand’s sister and adult disabled daughter, and then posing as her nephew to medical authorities. During her time at a rehabilitation hospital, Bien-Aime had Bertrand sign over power of attorney.

Bien-Aime is now facing charges that include exploitation of an elderly/disabled person, unlawfully filing false documents and scheme to defraud.

This is part of a broader rise of elder financial exploitation, and highlights how quickly a person’s life savings and even their home can be put at risk when legal authority is abused.

The rise of elder fraud

Older people are often a target because of their accumulated wealth. But seniors who are socially isolated or suffering from cognitive decline are at particular risk. While elder fraud isn’t new, it’s being fuelled by AI, which makes it easier to create personalized phishing scams.

Seniors lost $4.885 billion to scams in 2024, according to data from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) — a 43% increase from the year before. But fraud is vastly underreported, so those numbers are likely significantly higher (2).

Indeed, the National Council on Aging (NCOA) estimates that the financial exploitation of elders costs $28.3 billion each year. An analysis of calls to the National Center on Elder Abuse resource line found that almost half (47%) of incidents were perpetrated by family members, while 13% were perpetrated by medical caregivers (3).

Social isolation and mental impairment, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s, are two major factors behind financial exploitation, according to NCOA.

While there are a wide variety of scams that target the elderly — from investment scams to romance, sweepstakes and tech support scams — power of attorney fraud has the potential to completely wipe out the victim’s life savings.

Power of attorney is a legal tool that helps protect you in the event that you become incapacitated. This allows for an ‘agent’ or ‘attorney-in-fact’ to act on your behalf for financial or health decisions, if you’re not able to do so yourself.

So, in the wrong hands, it can become a powerful instrument for financial exploitation, where an agent “misuses their legal authority to steal, misappropriate assets or financially exploit the person (principal) they are supposed to protect,” according to legal resource NOLO (4).

In this case, not only did Bien-Aime allegedly empty several of Bertrand’s bank accounts, he also fraudulently transferred her home into his name. In total, he allegedly stole about $300,000 — money that was supposed to go to her disabled adult daughter.

How to protect yourself from POA fraud

Even if you have a will, you’ll also need to designate a power of attorney. While a will distributes your assets after death, a POA helps you manage your finances or health decisions during your lifetime. You can have both a financial POA and a healthcare POA.

An executor manages your estate after your death. For power of attorney, you’ll need an ‘agent’ to make decisions on your behalf (which may or may not be the same person as your executor). Your agent should be someone you deeply trust and who’s financially responsible.

You may want to consider a ‘springing’ POA, which grants your agent full authority to manage your affairs only after a doctor confirms that you’re incapacitated.

It’s a good idea to consult with an attorney to make sure your wishes are legally valid. An attorney can also help you build in safeguards, such as requiring two signatures for major financial transactions, specifying restrictions in the POA or appointing a POA monitor to receive updates or reports for added transparency.

“Skip the standard power-of-attorney form and customize the role to meet your needs, preferably with the help of a lawyer,” recommends AARP (5).