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A church acquaintance turned into an especially devious predator
Elderly Rip-offs
Document
Incident Reports from the City of Canfield Police Department involving elderly city residents.
CRIMES AGAINST ELDERLY RESULT IN
$2.6 BILLION LOST YEARLY IN THE U.S.
CANFIELD
The financial demise of a 78-year-old woman with dementia came at the hands of an especially devious predator, police and other officials said.
“It was a perfect storm,” said Canfield police Detective Brian McGivern, describing how Linda Kovachik used her former status as an aide to former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. to financially prey upon a victim and discourage neighbors from getting involved.
Kovachik, 69, of Flagler Lane, Boardman, is charged with one count of felony theft after being accused of taking more than $100,000 from the Canfield woman. The Vindicator reached out to Kovachik at the Mahoning County jail, but she refused to comment.
Kovachik was hired by Traficant in January 1985 in his first month as a congressman as a part-time staff representative. Within a few months, she was promoted to full time but left in 1990 after personality conflicts with other congressional staffers. She returned in 2000 to Traficant’s staff and remained there until he was expelled from Congress in July 2002.
During Traficant’s trial for racketeering and bribery, she was by his side every day and remained a close family friend during his incarceration. When Traficant was released from prison in 2009, she again resumed her role as a close confidante.
When a neighbor called Kovachik to express concern about the way she was managing the victim, the neighbor claimed she was threatened.
“When a couple of condo neighbors asked where the victim was, she [Kovachik], at one point, said, ‘Well I used to work for Jim Traficant – don’t question me,’” McGivern said, adding Kovachik said she “knows people, and she would make [the neighbor’s] life a living hell.”
Kovachik then hung up on the neighbor.
John Saulitis, director of the long-term care ombudsman program at the Area Agency on Aging 11, said consequences for crimes against elders should be looked at in the harshest terms possible.
“Individuals who exploit or abuse the elderly deserve special consideration in terms of enforcement,” he said. “Agencies, or society as a whole, need to send the message that we are not going to stand aside and let our elders, our seniors or our veterans be exploited in any way whether it is 10 cents or $100 or $100,000.”
Kovachik befriended the victim in 2013 after the elderly woman confided in her at church on the West Side of Youngstown that she thought her children were stealing her money, McGivern said.
Soon after, Kovachik offered to care for her and look over her finances. According to police, Kovachik did this by gaining the victim’s power of attorney and securing access to bank accounts.
“A year and a half later, more than $100,000 is reported missing from our victim,” McGivern said, noting Kovachik cashed 93 savings bonds and took an additional $65,000 from the victim’s bank account – most of which went to what Kovachik told him was a gambling addiction.
“[Kovachik] said she did in fact steal money from [the victim] without her knowledge to support the addiction,” reports said.
He described how Kovachik would forge the victim’s signature as she issued checks with large payouts for minimal tasks such as $800 for cleaning the condo or $900 for groceries.
The fraud expanded from there, police said.
“At one point, she withdrew money from an annuity and put it into a separate life-insurance policy, and she signed herself as beneficiary of the life-insurance policy,” McGivern said.
Reports said Kovachik also admitted taking and selling the victim’s diamond wedding ring.
Kovachik also took the victim – and money she took from the victim – to Las Vegas as well, McGivern said.
Dorothy Barto, Alzheimer’s Assistance and Referral Network director, said this type of crime against elders – especially those with dementia or similar conditions – is becoming more common because addiction is on the rise. In Kovachik’s case, she admitted a gambling addiction.
“The more people need money, the more they look to some place it’s available to get that money,” Barto said, though she noted this type of crime is underreported – resulting in $2.6 billion lost in the United States each year, according to the Administration on Community Living.
Saulitis said predators also look for these types of people because the chances of someone prosecuting them aren’t very high.
Embarrassment is the chief reason these types of thefts are underreported, said Lisa Solley, Area Agency on Aging 11 director of communications.
“Some of them [elders] are very intelligent, very successful people,” said the Rev. Ed Noga, pastor of St. Patrick Church in Youngstown. “They were just too embarrassed to come forward and admit they did this silly thing.”
Father Noga said he works with the older population because it makes up a majority of the parish.
McGivern said the Canfield victim was one of those intelligent, successful people. She came from a hard-working blue-collar family, was always in charge of her flawless finances and raised three children. Now, she feels responsible for being victimized.
“She [Kovachik] really, really took advantage of a sad situation,” McGivern said. “I don’t ever see this lady being whole again. It’s taken a toll on her.”
The victim’s daughter said her mother is having even more trust issues now than before.
“It’s a tough thing, and we just want to prevent others from having this happen to them and bring awareness to the elderly who are vulnerable to this crime,” the daughter said. “Hopefully, someone can learn from this.”
Solley said the elderly can be vulnerable to scams because earlier generations were simply raised to be kinder than others.
“They just don’t like telling people no, so it’s hard for them to do that when they’re trying to be polite,” she said.
Regardless of the reason for targeting this group for theft, Solley said the best way to combat it is through education.
“By 2018, 30 percent of the population in Mahoning County will be 60 or older, and right now at least 25 percent are,” she said. “We are an aging community.”
Currently, 25 percent of the county’s population is at risk to become another statistic in the world of scamming.
“The best thing a family can do if a person is getting to an older age is to take custody of their bank account,” suggested Jim Henshaw, Austintown Senior Center director.
He said this is to help monitor activity in case a loved one gets into trouble.
Barto agreed, and suggested having multiple people monitoring the elderly.
McGivern said the biggest key to prevention is looking for red flags.
“Isolation is a big one. They’re not returning your calls, not sending birthday cards, just completely falling off the face of the Earth or things these people wouldn’t normally do,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt to bring it to our attention.”
Solley suggested those who have a question as far as health or legal directives are concerned should speak with an elder-law attorney who specializes in protecting elders’ rights.
“Ask the questions. Make the effort. Make a call and reach out,” Solley said. “It’s better to be safe. ... We need to get involved if we want to try to handle this and try to prevent the issue from getting worse and worse.”
Henshaw said the senior center has a binder full of printed email scams to help get the word out to others.
“People are really slick and very convincing, but there isn’t a Nigerian prince out there who wants to give you money,” he said.
Barto, like Solley, stressed the importance of education both for the seniors and for their loved ones.
“We really want to try to tell older adults to empower themselves with educational tools not to become victims,” Solley said. “Be careful about what information you put out there. ... I always tell people to check in with Better Business Bureau. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.”