A Ludlow, Ky. man was sentenced Monday to 36 months in prison for financially exploiting a wealthy elderly woman out of more than $250,000.
United States District Court Judge Danny C. Reeves also ordered 45-year-old Gordon Powell to forfeit a house on Hazelwood Drive in Fort Wright, Ky. and a Cadillac Escalade, both of which Powell purchased with a portion of the proceeds from his fraud.
Powell pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in May of 2009 and admitted that in 2006 he befriended an elderly Kenton County woman in her eighties who had no apparent family and suffered from dementia like symptoms. After learning she was wealthy, Powell persuaded the woman to make him her power-of-attorney which gave him the authority to make decisions on her behalf.
After obtaining this authority, he liquidated hundreds of thousands of dollars of assets and transferred over $250,000 of the proceeds of the liquidation to his personal accounts.
Powell then used money from these accounts to purchase the house and the car.
Under federal law, Powell must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence, and upon release, will be under the supervision of the United States Probation Office for two years.
