Vile caregivers accused of using millionaire, 91, as a ‘piggy bank’ and leaving her in financial ruin
An elderly woman with dementia was secretly swindled out of millions by her at-home caregivers, her surviving family members have claimed.
The allegations were laid bare in The San Francisco Chronicle, which frames four unnamed women as responsible and 91-year-old Geraldine Clark as their unsuspecting mark.
Clark died in 2023, seven years into the supposed scam.
The group of caretakers found through a placement agency funneled more than $4 million out of her finances within that span, surviving relatives said.
The trustee appointed to oversee the San Francisco woman’s finances after her death went on to trace the money to an account managed by Wells Fargo, where she found more than 1,000 canceled checks made out to the caregivers.
Late 91-year-old Geraldine Clark, seen here before her death with also passed partner, William Clement, lost more than $4million over the course of seven years thanks to four scamming live-in caregivers, her relatives claimed this week
Clark, seen here in a yearbook photo from 1952 and another shot snapped 50 years later, died in 2023, seven years into the supposed scam. The group of caretakers found through a placement agency allegedly funneled the money out of her finances within that span
‘There were months that (the caregivers) were pulling out $100,000, $200,000,’ Clark’s 60-year-old nephew, David Stewart, told the local paper. ‘It was like a piggy bank.’
‘I sat with the manager of a bank until 8:30pm at night, pulling all the checks and getting everything together to have a case,’ added Heather Yarbrough, the trustee appointed just after Clark’s death to keep tabs on her finances.
Yarbrough, a licensed private professional fiduciary and a nationally certified guardian, proceeded to compare the cashed checks against a checkbook register recovered from Clark’s apartment.
All of the entries were written in the lead caregiver’s handwriting, she said – citing how Clark had been diagnosed with dementia back in 2016.
She added that she made the discovery surrounding the checks four months after the matriarch’s death last year – mere months after the unnamed caregiver phoned Clark’s nephew, David Stewart, to tell him Clark’s nest egg had been exhausted.
The call had come in after Clark, for years, had lived off a half a million left behind by her partner, William Clement, and an illustrious stock portfolio stock inherited from her family.
The arrangement allowed the woman to live comfortable at her rent-controlled apartment in the city’s Financial District, even as her faculties declined,
However, by the time Clark was transferred to a nursing home the month after Clement died in November 2022, her brokerage account that once held $5 million was worth a paltry $185.
Clark, seen here in her youth, was also suffering from dementia – a diagnosis the four women did not disclose to her living relatives
Clark died at the center months later, after which Yarbrough tracked down the missing millions to the Wells Fargo account.
There, the fiduciary expert found checks that had been written and cashed for thousands more than corresponding checkbook entries had indicated, as well as documents that showed how each of the caregivers were supposed to be making $30 an hour.
However, once she factored in the overpayments, the hourly rate shot up to more than $416 an hour – compensation that amounts to more than $4 million that Clark’s relatives now say was stolen when added up from 2016 to 2022.
Yarbrough went on to submit her findings to both San Francisco police and the FBI in a police report filed in May of last year, though both parties declined to pick up the case.
As for an explanation why, detective Sgt. Justin Woo on Saturday told the Chronicle the ‘case was presented to the DA’s Office [but] was declined.’
‘Without testimony from the deceased victim, the DA’s Office will be unable to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt.’
However, after reaching out to the district attorney’s office, the Chronicle found inconsistencies with that narrative as prosecutors refuted Woo’s statement, claiming, ‘No arrest warrant or evidence was presented to our office for review on this matter.’
The trustee appointed to oversee the San Francisco woman’s finances, Heather Yarbrough (pictured), went on to trace the money to an account managed by Wells Fargo, where she found more than 1,000 canceled checks made out to the caregivers
The statement from the San Francisco DA’s Office added: ‘If and when a case is presented to us by the San Francisco Police Department… we [will] carefully review all of the facts and evidence gathered to see if we can pursue criminal charges.’
A FBI spokesperson, meanwhile, also stated that feds had decided against taking on the case – spurring some statements from disbelief from Yarbrough.
‘I had no idea they would do absolutely nothing about a crime of this magnitude against an elderly person here,’ she said, citing emails that showed the lead caregiver allegedly carrying out the theft amid correspondence with Clark’s financial managers.
Also failing to sway investigators were medical records the caregivers had not shared with Clark’s family, showing the extent of her then worsening dementia and years of monthly prescriptions for 150 5mg pills of hydrocodone, a powerful opiod that could worsen cognitive decline in older adults.
‘Every time a prescription was written it was by the request’ of the lead caregiver, Kaira Stewart said, pointing to notes in her aunt-in-law’s medical file.
She and David live in Costa Mesa more than 400 miles away from where this was all playing out, with both saying they were never even made aware about the 2016 dementia diagnosis.
David sister, Elizabeth Bryant Stewart, lives even further away in France – and the family now says they believe there’s little to gain by suing the caregivers.
The paper did not name the four allegedly responsible for the plot due to the absence of any criminal charges, as the Stewarts struggle to pick up the pieces without a criminal case. Pictured, Clark and her partner, who left behind half a million for his beloved, who had millions in an inherited stock portfolio
Following some sleuthing of the lead caregiver’s social media posts from Kaira, she told the paper how her mother-in-law’s money was likely long gone – and how posts from the caregiver and her family the showed photos of vacations, new vehicles and even a new house.
She also recalled how the head caretaker repeatedly contacted her and her husband after Clark was moved to the nursing home and then after her death to ask for money, which she said was for missing paychecks.
‘I feel terrible about what happened to my aunt, No. 1,’ said David, adding how he saw Clark as a second mother. ‘But I feel like there’s another family that this could happen to again.”
John Hartog, a Bay Area attorney who specializes in probate law, blamed the structure of the city’s criminal court system for the lack of charges, telling the Chronicle, ‘Criminal law will not punish these types of wrongdoers, nine times out of 10.’
The paper did not name the four allegedly responsible for the plot due to the absence of any criminal charges, as the Stewarts struggle to pick up the pieces without a criminal case.
The Chronicle, meanwhile, reported that it reached out to the lead caregiver for comment from the lead caregiver through emails, text messages and phone calls, but did not receive a response.
