Feb 19, 2026
Oscar Lawton Wilkerson Jr. battled Germans during World War II and discrimination in the U.S. military as one of the pioneering Tuskegee Airmen.
What the Chicago veteran never expected was that his own niece — former Cook County judge Patricia Martin — would betray him in his old age and that his family would have to fight her.
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As CBS News reports, Martin stole more than $245,000 of Wilkerson’s funds between December 2020 and October 2022, stashing some of it in bitcoin just days before he died, making the money hard to recover (1).
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Martin had access to the cash because his family entrusted her with power of attorney for Wilkerson’s finances as he transitioned into a nursing home in his 90s.
Eric Puryear, a Chicago attorney involved in the case, knew both Wilkinson and Martin personally. He understood the family’s trust and respect for Martin as both a judge and a family member.
"Every box for trustworthiness seemed to be checked there," Puryear told CBS. “She seemed like the perfect person.”
Martin has since been disbarred (2).
As the Chicago Sun Times reported, Martin pleaded guilty to stealing Wilkerson’s money in December 2025. She was ordered to pay $122,763.73 in restitution and sentenced to four years’ probation (3).
This case underscores how even someone who has served their country with distinction can be vulnerable to elder financial exploitation, and that the perpetrator can be someone trusted both publicly and personally.
Insiders target older adults’ trust
The Department of Justice defines elder financial exploitation as financial abuse by a relative, caregiver, or fiduciary.
It does tend to be people within the victim’s circle of family and friends who engage in such abuse, exploiting older adults’ trust, isolation and changes in their cognitive and physical health (4).
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At the same time, older adults may rely on others for transportation, banking, or complex paperwork, and people in positions of authority can exploit urgency and secrecy to keep victims from checking in with other family members.
The scale of this problem is enormous and significantly underreported. Federal reporting shows staggering losses, with the FBI citing billions lost annually.
The Federal Trade Commission has also documented a sharp rise in fraud losses reported by people over the age of 60.
Many of these cases follow a familiar pattern where a helper gains access and gradually normalizes unusual withdrawals or transfers across checking, savings and retirement accounts (5).
Court records show Martin made 11 withdrawals over 18 months adding up to $246,203, converting some of it into hard-to-trace bitcoin accounts.
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Cryptocurrency adds speed and complexity to these crimes, allowing thieves to move value quickly and making clawbacks difficult.
While crypto does not make a criminal invisible, techniques like hopping funds across multiple wallets or using mixing services can obscure ownership and slow down recovery efforts.
Recovery is sometimes possible through federal tracing and forfeiture, but it usually depends on fast reporting and whether the funds hit identifiable chokepoints where they are converted back into traditional currency.
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How to build digital and social guardrails for family wealth
According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, elder financial exploitation often shows up as a mix of suspicious money movement and subtle behavior changes, such as:
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- sudden drops in account balances
- repeated cash withdrawals
- unusual transfers to new accounts
- abrupt changes to wills, trusts, or beneficiaries, especially if your loved one seems confused about recent decisions or can’t explain where the money went. (6)
If you’re worried that someone in your life is experiencing such financial abuse, it’s good to have specific and shame-free conversations with them.
Families can encourage a loved one to call a designated family member for a check-in if they experience a financial request involving secrecy, urgency or the movement of money to “protect it”.
If exploitation is suspected, the first steps are to preserve evidence, document transfers, and report the activity immediately to the bank and the FBI (7).
To protect our elders from financial abuse, we need a community of people looking out for each other.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
CBS News (1, 2); Chicago Sun Times (3); U.S. Department of Justice (4, 7); Federal Trade Commission (5); Office of the Controller of the Currency (6)
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Will Kenton is a personal finance writer with a Master's degree in Economics who has been published in Investopedia, AP News, TIME Stamped and Business Insider among other publications.
