Montana Woman Gets 5 Years For Stealing Bank CDs, Home Sale Proceeds From 80+ Year Old Mother

In Billings, Montana, The Billings Gazette reports:

• A Billings woman who admitted to stealing $300,000 from her elderly mother in a bankruptcy fraud scheme will serve the maximum five years in federal prison. "I would just like to apologize and ask forgiveness from God and everyone," an emotional Nancy Florence Short, 63, said Friday. [...] Short pleaded guilty in July to concealing assets and making false statements in a scheme that started in 2001 with bankruptcy filings in Montana. Prosecutors said Short converted $300,000 in certificates of deposit from her mother without authorization and took $22,780 from the sale of her mother's house in Texas, knowing that the money was intended for her mother's care.

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• When Short placed her mother in [an assisted care facility], she isolated her by diverting her mail and denying access to her car, [U.S. District Judge Richard] Cebull said. Short also gave the staff a false medical history of her mother by saying she suffered from Alzheimer's and was paranoid. When Short's mother discovered the theft, the staff and police initially didn't believe her allegations because of the supposed Alzheimer's, Cebull said. Short was the victim's only contact outside [the care facility], he said.

For more, see Woman gets 5 years in bankruptcy fraud.

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