Five lawyers, their meters running, sat down in a Hennepin County courtroom last Thursday. The task at hand: Sorting through the mess left behind by the collapse of Alternate Decision Makers Inc., a company entrusted with the lives and money of dozens of vulnerable adults.
In June 2013, the company’s lawyer and staff confronted the founder and president, Stephen Grisham, with evidence that he had stolen from a veteran under his supervision. Grisham stepped down and gave up his caseload, becoming the latest in a shameful line of court-appointed guardians and conservators caught abusing their largely unregulated powers.
The year since then has been a swirl of investigations, audits and court hearings. More signs of wrongdoing by Grisham emerged. A necklace that belonged to the estate of a deceased Minneapolis woman was sold for $1,500. Another woman lost nearly $16,000 in Krugerrands, the famous gold coins from South Africa.
In June 2013, the company’s lawyer and staff confronted the founder and president, Stephen Grisham, with evidence that he had stolen from a veteran under his supervision. Grisham stepped down and gave up his caseload, becoming the latest in a shameful line of court-appointed guardians and conservators caught abusing their largely unregulated powers.
The year since then has been a swirl of investigations, audits and court hearings. More signs of wrongdoing by Grisham emerged. A necklace that belonged to the estate of a deceased Minneapolis woman was sold for $1,500. Another woman lost nearly $16,000 in Krugerrands, the famous gold coins from South Africa.
Federal charge
After an investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Grisham was charged last month with a federal count of misappropriation by a fiduciary. He faces up to five years in prison. It’s a stunning fall for a man whom judges enlisted for years to manage the affairs of victims or potential victims of financial exploitation.
After other guardians and conservators went bad in recent years, the state court system has improved its oversight of these professionals. Yet it was Grisham’s own employees who discovered their boss’s misdeeds.
Robert McLeod, a lawyer for Alternate Decision Makers, said the company is “effectively dead.” Yet he wants a bonding company to pay at least $90,000 in legal and accounting fees that were expended to detect an estimated $100,000 in missing assets.
Grisham’s confession last year set off a scramble by the company to change locks, safe combinations and passwords, to find other conservators and guardians who could take over Grisham’s cases and to hunt for clues to additional thefts by Grisham.
“We acted as if he stole from every file,” McLeod said. If the company had not investigated, “the concern was that he would have continued stealing.”
Full Article and Source:
Lawyers Still Unraveling the Case of the Thieving Conservator
See Also:
Former Minnesota Conservator Stephen Grisham Faces Federal Theft Charges
Lawyers Still Unraveling the Case of the Thieving Conservator
See Also:
Former Minnesota Conservator Stephen Grisham Faces Federal Theft Charges