Call Kurtis: Stamping Out Fraud
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- "This is a $20 signature stamp that cost my mother 3/4 of a million dollars, leaving her in financial ruin."
Liz Sanders testified in front of a The California Banking Finance Institutions Committee last week, motivated by crimes committed against her dying mother.
"She couldn't move. She couldn't eat. Caregivers just came one after another."
Her mother, 82 year old Bette Isenberg, was bedridden, looking nothing like the vibrant interior designer of her youth.
Caregivers were her only way to survive.
"Things were getting really bad. She had some surgery and was unstable. Something happened to her hand, left side weakened; she needed the stamp"
The stamp is a facsimile stamp of Bette's signature.
It was needed because she was just too weak to sign her own name.
But in the wrong hands it led to almost a million dollars in fraud, according to her daughter.
"She started just taking the stamp and stamping all the checks… and then she started shopping," Liz says.
She "...bought Louis Vuitton... some diamonds… she went to town."
"She" is 55 year old Helen Wofford, Bette Isenberg's live-in caregiver.
She was accused of shopping at Neiman's and Saks, using the signature stamp to sign checks to pay credit card bills, pay herself thousands of dollars, and even get herself cosmetic surgery.
Liz re-enacts what others told her: "'Oh, guess what? I got a tummy tuck. I'm getting it as a Christmas present.' She's telling the building manager. 'How are you getting that? 'Oh Mrs. Isenberg is giving me a tummy tuck for a Christmas present.'"
"She simply took the stamp and stamped fraudulent checks" says Liz.
Other allegations include taking a half million dollars from a life insurance fund and stealing Bette's jewelry, all before the bank finally figured it out and police busted her.
Wofford pleaded no contest earlier this year to grand theft and was sentenced to 32 months in prison.
But, after the arrest was made, Bette's health deteriorated.
"That was it for her. She didn't care about anything, didn't want to eat. She said she wanted to die" remembers Liz.
Bette Isenberg died in August, but now Liz is trying to keep her memory alive.
There's no estimate on how many seniors use these stamps but Liz is working with elected officials to enact legislation to put a cap on the amount of money that can be withdrawn with them.
She hopes what happened to her mother won't happen to others.
"It just breaks my heart. I could never have anybody go through this again."
So, the purpose of Senate Bill 586, introduced by Senator Fran Pavley (D-Santa Monica), is to reduce the fraudulent use of signature stamp.
It would require a bank employee to witness and sign all requests for signature stamps, require the bank to give information on the risks of using signature stamps, increase fines related to fraud, forgery, and embezzlement, and add "the fraudulent use of a signature stamp" to the crime list.
Right now, there is not a lot of reporting of this crime, because there's no law.
SB-586, which is sponsored by AARP and the California Senior Legislature, passed out of the Banking and Financial Institutions Committee on April 6, 2011, and will now head to the Senate Public Safety Committee.
