Paw Paw insurance agent to face charges of embezzling from client with dementia
April 30, 2018 by Newschannel 3
PAW PAW, Mich. — A Paw Paw insurance agent will face criminal charges following an investigation from the Elder Financial Crimes Unit in Michigan.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Brian Lietzau, 57, will be charged with seven felonies for abusing his position when given power of attorney for a woman suffering from dementia.
Lietzau, the former owner of Farm Bureau-Lietzau Insurance, was investigated for claims he stole $270,000 from one of his clients who suffered from dementia when he was her power of attorney in 2012. Schuette said Lietzau wrote checks to himself from the client’s account, as well as converting her funds into his own.
Several of the suspected transfers happened while the client was in the hospital and after she passed away.
The case was investigated by the Elder Financial Crimes Unit. Now, Lietzau will faces the following charges:
- Conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, a felony with penalties of 20 years and up to $100,000 in fines;
- Embezzlement from a vulnerable adult over $100,000, a felony with penalties of 20 years and up to $50,000 or three times the amount embezzled, whichever is greater;
- Two counts of embezzlement by agent over $1,000, a felony with 5 years and up to $10,000 or three times the amount embezzled whichever is greater;
- And three counts of using a computer to commit a crime, a felony with 7 years and up to $5,000 in fines.
