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[Senate Hearing 114-870]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                        S. Hrg. 114-870
 
                   BROKEN TRUST: COMBATING FINANCIAL
                   EXPLOITATION OF VULNERABLE SENIORS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                       SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                             WASHINGTON, DC

                               __________

                            FEBRUARY 4, 2015

                               __________

                           Serial No. 114-01

         Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Aging
         
         
         
 [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]         
         

        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
        
        
        
                           ______
 
              U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
 49-533 PDF          WASHINGTON : 2022 
       
        
                       SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

                   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine, Chairman

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah                 CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
MARK KIRK, Illinois                  BILL NELSON, Florida
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona                  ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania
TIM SCOTT, South Carolina            SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
BOB CORKER, Tennessee                KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, New York
DEAN HELLER, Nevada                  RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
TOM COTTON, Arkansas                 JOE DONNELLY, Indiana
DAVID PERDUE, Georgia                ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts
THOM TILLIS, North Carolina          TIM KAINE, Virginia
BEN SASSE, Nebraska
                              ----------                              
               Priscilla Hanley, Majority Staff Director
               
                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              

                                                                   Page

Opening Statement of Senator Susan M. Collins, Chairman..........     1
Opening Statement of Senator Claire McCaskill, Ranking Member....     3

                           PANEL OF WITNESSES

Philip C. Marshall, Grandson of Brooke Astor.....................     5
Judith Shaw, Securities Administrator of Maine, Co-Chair, Maine 
  Council for Elder Abuse Prevention, and President-Elect of The 
  North American Securities Administrators Association...........     7
Kathleen M. Quinn, Executive Director, National Adult Protective 
  Services Association...........................................     9
Page Ulrey, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Elder Abuse Team, 
  King County Prosecutor's Office................................    11

                                APPENDIX
                      Prepared Witness Statements

Philip C. Marshall, Grandson of Brooke Astor.....................    33
Judith Shaw, Securities Administrator of Maine, Co-Chair, Maine 
  Council for Elder Abuse Prevention, and President-Elect of The 
  North American Securities Administrators Association...........    36
Kathleen M. Quinn, Executive Director, National Adult Protective 
  Services Association...........................................    43
Page Ulrey, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Elder Abuse Team, 
  King County Prosecutor's Office................................    56

                   BROKEN TRUST: COMBATING FINANCIAL

                   EXPLOITATION OF VULNERABLE SENIORS

                              ----------                              

                      WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2015

                                       U.S. Senate,
                                Special Committee on Aging,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:28 p.m., Room 
562, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Susan M. Collins, 
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Collins, Scott, Tillis, Sasse, McCaskill, 
Nelson, Casey, Gillibrand, Blumenthal, Donnelly, Warren, and 
Kaine.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR 
                   SUSAN M. COLLINS, CHAIRMAN

    The Chairman. It is my great pleasure to call to order the 
very first hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging in 
the 114th Congress.
    I have had the honor of being a member of this Committee 
since my very first days in the U.S. Senate and I am delighted 
to now assume the Chairmanship. This is the first time that a 
Maine Senator has chaired the Committee since the mid-1990's, 
when my predecessor and good friend, Senator Bill Cohen, for 
whom I worked for 12 years, served as the Committee's chair.
    I am also pleased to welcome both new and returning members 
to this Committee, and I am delighted that my good friend and 
colleague, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, will serve as 
the Committee's Ranking Member. Senator Bill Nelson, the former 
Committee chairman, has also chosen to remain a member of this 
Committee and he will continue to share his expertise with us.
    Throughout its history, the Aging Committee has spurred 
Congress to take action on issues important to older Americans 
through our hearings, investigations, and reports, and it has 
done so in a bipartisan manner. I will continue that fine 
tradition, working closely with Senator McCaskill and all of 
our members.
    This year, the Committee will focus on three major issues: 
Retirement security, biomedical research investment for 
diseases like Alzheimer's and diabetes that disproportionately 
affect our seniors, and financial schemes and other scams 
targeting older Americans.
    Today, we will examine financial exploitation that harms 
far too many of our Nation's most vulnerable seniors. This 
Committee has brought to light many schemes that have defrauded 
seniors out of their hard-earned retirement savings. It is 
deeply troubling when a senior falls victim to one of these 
schemes, but even more egregious is when the perpetrator is a 
family member, a caregiver, or a trusted financial advisor.
    Financial exploitation of older Americans is a growing 
epidemic that cost seniors an estimated $2.9 billion in 2010, 
according to the GAO. In Maine alone, there are 14,000 new 
reports each year of senior abuse, which includes financial 
exploitation, and in as many as 90 percent of financial cases, 
the senior is victimized by someone he or she knows well.
    Unfortunately, the full story is even worse. Many of these 
cases are never reported because the victim is too ashamed to 
report financial exploitation, particularly when it involves a 
family member. As a consequence, the true incidence of this 
kind of abuse is not known.
    Identifying victims of financial exploitation in my State 
is particularly difficult because we Mainers take a lot of 
pride in our self-sufficiency. It is difficult for many seniors 
to ask for help. In addition, since victims who have had their 
assets stolen by family members typically do not want their 
relatives to be criminally prosecuted, the stolen money is 
rarely recovered. This loss can undermine both the health and 
the financial security of older people.
    Combatting financial abuse of seniors is primarily the 
responsibility of State and local agencies, particularly Adult 
Protective Services agencies. Prevention and response to cases 
of abuse require coordinated efforts, including State and local 
agencies, law enforcement, the social work and medical 
communities, and financial institutions.
    The Federal Government also plays an important role in 
providing leadership to combat this problem. The Elder Justice 
Coordinating Council, led by the Department of Health and Human 
Services, has brought together 12 Federal agencies to 
coordinate efforts to protect older individuals from abuse, 
including financial exploitation.
    I also want to acknowledge the critical role played by 
State regulatory agencies, and I am particularly pleased to 
welcome to our hearing Judith Shaw, who serves as the 
Securities Administrator for the State of Maine. Maine, I am 
pleased to say, is on the cutting edge of helping to combat 
financial abuse of seniors through programs like the innovative 
Senior$afe program, which is the first of its kind in the 
Nation. I will not preempt Ms. Shaw's testimony by describing 
it, but I think it provides a model for many States.
    Financial exploitation knows no socio-economic boundaries. 
Victims range from seniors who have very modest financial means 
to those who have amassed great wealth. For example, the 
daughter of a Maine senior in Androscoggin County sold her 
mother's home and moved her into a camper in her backyard. As 
if that were not bad enough, the daughter and her boyfriend 
went on to deplete her mother's life savings over the course of 
two years, leaving her penniless as well as homeless.
    While individuals of limited means are particularly 
vulnerable, even the wealthiest, the most fortunate Americans, 
are not immune from financial exploitation. Today, we will also 
hear from Philip Marshall, who is the grandson of a well-known 
philanthropist and socialite, Brooke Astor, who summered in 
Maine for decades and was so generous to our State. He will 
testify about how his father mistreated his mother and 
mismanaged her assets while she suffered from Alzheimer's.
    To be clear, there are many instances in which it is vital 
for a senior to have the assistance of a family member, friend, 
or other trusted advisor to help manage his or her finances 
wisely and prudently, particularly if that senior becomes ill 
or loses cognitive ability. This is another factor that makes 
this issue so troubling and so complicated.
    I look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses today--
we have a great panel--about the efforts that are underway to 
address financial abuse of vulnerable seniors.
    I do want to also apologize to our panel that we are going 
to have a vote at 2:45. We will try to keep it going. Whoever 
is here will take over the gavel. That is how trusting and 
bipartisan that we are, and we will try to make the 
interruption as brief as possible.
    Senator McCaskill.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR 
                CLAIRE McCASKILL, RANKING MEMBER

    Senator McCaskill. Thank you, Chairman Collins.
    If a year ago I had been approached in the hallway by one 
of those pesky people with a microphone and if I were asked, if 
the Democrats were to lose control of the Senate and you were 
to take over as a Ranking Member of the very first Committee 
you could ever serve on as a Ranking Member, who would you pick 
for your Chairman, I would have said without hesitation, my 
friend, my mentor, and my role model, Susan Collins. She has 
been an example to me from the day that I arrived of courage 
and independence when it is called upon, and of working across 
the aisle. I watched her with Senator Lieberman in the Homeland 
Security Committee when she was the Ranking Member show 
determination and toughness when she needed to, but always 
willing to listen and cooperate when it was essential. I am 
very proud to serve under Chairman Collins, and I think we will 
have a terrific and productive Committee looking at a very 
important issue in our country.
    The senior financial exploitation is not new to any of us. 
As the prosecutor in Kansas City, I saw firsthand both horrific 
and heartbreaking instances of elder abuse--physical, 
emotional, and, yes, financial. Roughly one in five seniors 
will be a target of some form of financial exploitation, to the 
tune of billions of dollars of losses each year.
    This hearing will focus on those cases with an additional 
conflicting factor, when the perpetrator is a family member, a 
trusted caretaker, or a close friend or advisor. The numbers 
here do not really tell the story, and thankfully, we have 
several witnesses who can share firsthand accounts of some of 
the truly horrible instances of this type of abuse.
    Perpetrators are constantly developing new ways to gain 
access to our seniors' life savings and have focused upon a 
generation that typically has been more trusting and less able 
or willing to self-report. When the victim is a family member, 
however, these become some of the most complex cases around. 
Often, a family member is legally appointed as the guardian of 
assets. A victim of those around them may suspect what is 
happening, but feel even more powerless or ashamed to report. 
Often, a victim will struggle with filing criminal charges 
against a child or other family member. Prosecution involves 
not only criminal action, but civil action to potentially 
regain access.
    Today, I want to reiterate that we cannot shy away from 
holding these perpetrators accountable for their actions. The 
fraud and abuse perpetrated on our seniors is absolutely 
unconscionable. It is really a fairly recent phenomenon that we 
have started discussing these types of cases in the criminal 
arena, because for too long, they were dismissed as family 
matters.
    Today, we will hear from Page Ulrey, a Seattle prosecutor 
who specializes in elder abuse criminal cases, and she will 
talk about just how few of her colleagues she has in this 
arena. Only a handful of offices around the country have an 
office like the one she works in King County, Washington, and 
that is troubling.
    Financial exploitation cases involving the elderly are 
difficult to prosecute. You need competent and trained 
professionals at every level, from the detectives and mental 
health professionals, forensic accountants, and, of course, 
trained investigators and prosecutors. Ms. Ulrey will share how 
she is trying to train people in her area and around the 
country. In fact, in this past year, she came to Missouri to 
help develop ways to protect seniors in my State who suffer 
from cognitive impairments from becoming victims of financial 
fraud.
    We must address the desperate need for increased 
cooperation at the Federal, State, and local level, and let me 
reiterate that, because since she is a King County prosecutor, 
I am sure she has her own stories to tell about turf and about 
fiefdoms and about fights and about finger pointing. It is, ``I 
am not going to take this case. Take it to the city 
prosecutor.'' ``I am not going to take this case. Take it to 
the county prosecutor.'' ``I am not going to take this case. It 
is too complex. Take it to the U.S. Attorney.'' We must address 
this cooperation.
    There are those who say this is a State issue. Yes, it is, 
but it is bigger than just a State issue. There is much that 
the Federal Government can do better to assist State and local 
prosecution of these cases. GAO found in its 2012 review of 
this issue that seven different Federal agencies were working 
to solve this problem that were consistent with their own 
mission, but not necessarily supportive of one another or the 
overall goal. Since that time, these agencies have, in fact, 
begun to work together, and I want to highlight the work of one 
of them with material on hand today, the Consumer Financial 
Protection Bureau that is providing real guidance for family 
members and caregivers on how to responsibly take care of 
someone else's finances. My colleague who is here today, 
Senator Warren, is very personally aware of the efforts of the 
CFPB in this area.
    There is still so much more that we could be doing and are 
not. The reality is, we do not even have national data on the 
scope of the problem. We do not know how many cases are 
reported to Adult Protection Services, nor do we know how many 
elder abuse cases are criminally prosecuted, or how many civil 
cases have been filed in this area.
    I hope that our witnesses today can help us to examine how 
we can become more creative and assertive against these 
perpetrators, but firmly within our role in the Federal 
Government. I look forward to speaking with our witnesses about 
how we can start to eliminate aging discrimination and bias in 
our attitudes toward prosecution of these cases. Too often, 
they are dismissed because they are difficult to prove, easier 
to address purely as a civil matter, or just too complex, 
especially when you are dealing with the mental capacity of the 
victim.
    My home State of Missouri passed a law in 2012 
strengthening the definition of financial exploitation of 
seniors. I intend to do everything I can to support that 
effort.
    Thank you again to the Chairman and to our witnesses for 
taking the time to be here today and I look forward to hearing 
your testimony.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator, and thank you 
so much for your very generous comments.
    I want to welcome to the Committee a new member of the 
Senate, Senator Sasse. We are very happy to have you join us on 
the Committee, and welcome back to the Committee this year 
Senator Warren of Massachusetts.
    We are going to turn to our panel next in the interest of 
time. First, we will be hearing from Philip Marshall, who is a 
professor at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, but he 
will be speaking today as a family member of someone, Brooke 
Astor, who I mentioned in my opening statement, and we very 
much appreciate your willingness to come forward and share what 
I am sure is a painful personal story.
    Next, we will hear from Judith Shaw, who serves as the 
Securities Administrator in Maine and is President-Elect of the 
North American Securities Administrators Association, an 
international organization devoted to investor protection.
    We will then hear from Kathleen Quinn, the Executive 
Director of the National Adult Protective Services Association.
    Finally, last but certainly not least, we will hear from 
Page Ulrey, the Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in King 
County, Washington, as Senator McCaskill has already explained.
    Mr. Marshall, thank you for being here.

                STATEMENT OF PHILIP C. MARSHALL,
                    GRANDSON OF BROOKE ASTOR

    Mr. Marshall. Chairman Collins, Ranking Member McCaskill, 
distinguished Committee members, thank you for inviting me to 
testify today. I am so grateful for your leadership and action 
on issues of elder justice.
    My name is Philip Marshall. I am a professor at Roger 
Williams, as you said, in Rhode Island, and a resident of 
Massachusetts, and I am also the grandson of New York 
philanthropist Brooke Astor, victim of elder abuse by her son, 
my father.
    As President of the Vincent Astor Foundation, my 
grandmother advanced its mission by giving millions of dollars 
to social and cultural causes. In 1998, President Bill Clinton 
awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Well into her 
90's, she was at center stage as New York's First Lady and a 
humanist aristocrat with a generous heart. By 2000, when she 
was 100, she disappeared from the limelight. She did not return 
until July 2006, when my guardianship petition, which I filed 
to protect my grandmother against my father, was discovered by 
the press. Front page headlines displayed, ``Disaster for Mrs. 
Astor.''
    My grandmother would never want to be known as one of 
America's most famous cases of elder abuse, nor did she, while 
in the throes of dementia, choose to be victimized, to be 
deprived, manipulated, and robbed, all as part of a calculated 
scheme to defraud, as later characterized by the Manhattan 
District Attorney. Yet, the sad circumstances surrounding my 
grandmother have informed a timely and timeless cause in elder 
justice. This may be her greatest, most lasting legacy.
    In my guardianship petition, I stated that my father, with 
reference to his mother, ``has turned a blind eye to her, 
intentionally and repeatedly ignoring her health, safety, 
personal and household needs, while enriching himself with 
millions of dollars.'' After a three-month battle and five days 
before our court date, a settlement was reached with permanent 
guardianship awarded. We had achieved our goal. My grandmother 
spent her final days in her country house with care, in 
comfort, and free from fear.
    A criminal investigation was launched by the Manhattan DA 
when a possible forgery was referred to his Elder Abuse Unit. 
In 2009, after a six-month criminal trial, my father was found 
guilty on thirteen of fourteen counts against him. All but one 
were held up on appeal. This was a very bittersweet harvest, 
yet this harvest has so nourished the cause of elder justice. 
Later, in probate, charities were awarded tens of millions of 
dollars that my father had tried to direct to himself.
    My grandmother now rests in peace, I could resume my life 
as before, but I realize to be complacent about elder justice 
is to be complicit in elder abuse. Since 2010, I launched my 
own journey for elder justice beyond Brooke. I have been border 
to border, coast to coast, face to face with elder justice 
practitioners. I thank them for doing so much for so many with 
so little. While, with help, I successfully detected abuse and 
then helped my grandmother, many elders lack vigilant oversight 
and remain helpless and hopeless.
    Here, all those providing services to older persons under 
Federal programs should be screened and trained on elder abuse 
detection and resources for response. In addition, Adult 
Protective Services needs Federal funding and support to 
respond adequately to an increasing number of cases of elder 
abuse.
    While my grandmother's abuse galvanized a collective and 
coordinated response, some elders are re-victimized by a 
fragmented system. Here, much greater financial support and 
expansion of multi-disciplinary teams would be so helpful.
    While my grandmother lived in a jurisdiction with an 
elected DA who cared and who had an Elder Abuse Unit, most 
people do not. Other communities need to have law enforcement 
and prosecutors who are trained in elder abuse and will respond 
to and prosecute these cases.
    While my grandmother's stolen assets were reclaimed, many 
elders never reclaim their money or their lives. Here, 
financial transactions, enhanced detection, mandatory 
reporting, and greater reporting of suspicious activities will 
so help. Financial monitoring must be matched with physical 
monitoring to ensure elders' well-being.
    Finally, I urge Congress to reauthorize the Elder Justice 
Act and the Older Americans Act. While elder abuse is a trend, 
it is not our destiny. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Marshall, for your 
very compelling testimony and your advocacy. Mrs. Astor was 
beloved in my State, as well, and did so much good throughout 
her life.
    Ms. Shaw.

       STATEMENT OF JUDITH SHAW, SECURITIES ADMINISTRATOR

       OF MAINE, CO-CHAIR, MAINE COUNCIL FOR ELDER ABUSE

          PREVENTION, AND PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE NORTH

         AMERICAN SECURITIES ADMINISTRATORS ASSOCIATION

    Ms. Shaw. Thank you, Senator. Chairman Collins, Ranking 
Member McCaskill, and members of the Committee, I am Judith 
Shaw, Maine Securities Administrator, and Co-Chair of the Maine 
Council for Elder Abuse Prevention. I am also the President-
Elect of the North American Securities Administrators 
Association, although I am not testifying before the Committee 
in that capacity today. I am honored to be here to discuss one 
of the most serious problems facing our elderly, financial 
exploitation, and to present one approach currently in use in 
Maine.
    Addressing senior financial exploitation is difficult, but 
critical. Many in our elderly population are vulnerable due to 
social isolation and distance from family and other support 
networks. The days of Americans growing old in communities 
surrounded by generations of family members are fading into the 
past.
    What do we know about this population? We know that older 
adults are often targets of financial fraud, scams, and 
exploitation, in part because they own tangible assets, 
including homes and pension streams that are attractive to scam 
artists. Older adults are often retired and no longer 
accumulating wealth. When a financial fraud or exploitation 
occurs, even seniors with significant savings have a limited 
ability to recoup their losses.
    This is a community problem that requires a holistic 
solution. We must all come together to weave a new safety net 
for our elderly, breaking down barriers and walls that have 
kept us from seeking achievable solutions. We must identify 
those who are best positioned to determine red flags early on 
and encourage reporting and referrals to appropriate government 
agencies.
    Where do we start? In Maine, we discovered one of the most 
valuable resources to be our banks and credit unions. We 
partnered with Maine's Office of Aging and Disability Services, 
Legal Services for the Elderly, the Maine Bankers Association, 
and Maine Credit Union League, among others, to develop 
Senior$afe. Senior$afe was created to increase identification 
and reporting of elder financial exploitation specifically for 
financial institutions.
    Prior to developing Senior$afe, the Maine Council for Elder 
Abuse Prevention met with representatives from the banks and 
credit unions to identify barriers to reporting suspected cases 
of elder financial exploitation. What we learned was that the 
system lacked a feedback loop, so institutions were often left 
wondering whether their customer had been assisted or if there 
even was a problem in the first place. We also learned that 
banks and credit unions lacked direction on what to do when red 
flags were identified.
    Senior$afe is comprised of three components: Training, a 
consumer brochure, and quick response cards for front-line 
staff and managers of financial institutions. Front-line staff 
are trained to identify red flags for elder abuse and financial 
exploitation, and managers are provided with information to 
help them develop internal reporting protocols. Participants 
are advised to always contact Adult Protective Services when in 
doubt about a senior's capacity, since APS is better equipped 
to make that assessment.
    However, if there is no reason to believe a customer is 
incapacitated, the Maine Office of Securities has agreed to be 
the second agency accepting reports and referrals under 
Senior$afe. As an intake agency, we receive telephone calls 
from banks and credit unions and review the information to 
determine whether to investigate the case or refer it to 
another appropriate Federal or State agency.
    The benefits of this type of reporting and referral system 
are far-reaching. It leads to improved safety in the community 
for seniors and other customers of the financial institution. 
Proactive measures help promote good will in the community and 
affirm the commitment of institutions to their customers' well-
being and financial independence.
    All of this sounds wonderful, but has it been effective? 
The answer is yes. The first bank employee training occurred in 
February 2014, followed one month later by training for credit 
union personnel. To date, 210 bank and credit union employees 
have received training. In less than one year, the office has 
received a total of 20 referrals resulting from the program.
    Statistics do not tell the whole story of Senior$afe's 
success. I have described several real-life examples, including 
one of my own, in my written testimony. In one, an elderly 
woman living in a rural area was driven to the bank by a 
supposed handyman to withdraw over $10,000 in cash to pay the 
man for repairing her roof. The customer had no idea who the 
individual was and had not contracted with him. APS was 
informed and is now caring for the victim, who lost over 
$14,000 to the known scam artist and had no other family member 
to care for her.
    To summarize, the types of communities in which we, our 
grandparents, or our parents were raised are becoming less 
routine. We must work together to create a new safety net using 
every valuable resource available to us. Combatting elder abuse 
and financial exploitation requires consistent education, 
identification, reporting, investigation, and prosecution.
    Thank you for your attention and for providing me with the 
opportunity to testify today. I would be happy to answer any 
questions.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Ms. Shaw.
    Ms. Quinn.

      STATEMENT OF KATHLEEN M. QUINN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
         NATIONAL ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES ASSOCIATION

    Ms. Quinn. Madam Chairman, Ranking Member McCaskill, and 
Committee members, thank you for the honor of speaking to you 
today about the terrible problem of elder abuse. I am Kathleen 
Quinn, Director of the National Adult Protective Services 
Association. We represent Adult Protective Services, or APS, 
programs, professionals, and, most importantly, older persons 
and adults with disabilities who are mistreated in more ways 
than any of us can imagine. NAPSA is a membership organization 
which helped found the Elder Justice Coalition. With ACL 
funding, we operate the first and only National APS Resource 
Center and we have crated the first National Advisory Board on 
Elder Financial Exploitation, on which I am proud to say Philip 
Marshall serves.
    Elder abuse is a huge, expensive, deadly problem, but one 
that is still largely invisible. One in ten older persons, 
which is about five million people, is now treated, twice the 
number, the combined number, of child abuse and domestic 
violence victims--twice. It kills. Victims are three times more 
likely to die than non-abused cohorts. It is expensive, costing 
individuals, their families, financial institutions, and 
taxpayers billions of dollars annually. Over 90 percent of 
reported elder abuse is committed by the victims' own family 
members, which you mentioned, Senator, especially their adult 
children. Finally, financial abuse very often co-occurs with 
physical and emotional abuse and neglect.
    Congress held the first hearings on elder abuse in the 
1970's, but only recently, thanks to the Elder Justice 
Coalition, the Elder Justice Act, Assistant Secretary 
Greenlee's leadership at ACL, the Elder Justice Coordinating 
Council, and this Committee, has any serious attention really 
begun to be paid. We hope that attention will continue and grow 
as Federal investment in both child abuse and domestic violence 
work has resulted in significant reductions in the incidence 
rates of both problems.
    The Chairman. Ms. Quinn, pardon me for interrupting. There 
are four minutes left in the vote, and as my colleagues know, I 
have never missed one in more than eighteen years, so I am 
going to excuse myself to vote.
    Ms. Quinn. Sure.
    The Chairman. Senator Gillibrand, have you voted?
    Senator Gillibrand. No.
    The Chairman. You need to go, also. Why do we not take just 
a brief break in the hearing, and if Senator McCaskill or 
Senator Scott, both of whom are on their way, gets back, they 
will resume, but we will return.
    Ms. Quinn. Okay. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Scott. Thank you for your patience.
    Ms. Quinn, I think you were in the middle of your opening 
comments. Would you like to continue.
    Ms. Quinn. I was. I thought maybe I got to start over, but 
no, they froze----
    Senator Scott. You certainly can----
    Ms. Quinn. No. Thank you. I will start at the beginning of 
the paragraph.
    Congress first held hearings on elder abuse in the 1970's, 
but only recently, thanks to the Elder Justice Coalition, the 
Elder Justice Act, Assistant Secretary Greenlee's leadership at 
the ACL, and the Elder Justice Coordinating Council, and in no 
small part to this Committee, has any serious attention really 
been paid to the issue. We hope that attention will continue 
and grow as Federal investment in both child abuse and domestic 
violence work has resulted in significant reductions in the 
incidence rates of both.
    Yet, victimized adults with disabilities and older persons 
receive no direct support from our national government. There 
is no dedicated funding for APS, the only nationally available, 
statutorily authorized services system for adults who cannot 
protect themselves. It is APS which directly helps financial 
abuse victims.
    The Elder Justice Act, passed in 2010, had its first 
appropriation for $4 million in 2015 to support the development 
of desperately needed national infrastructure, but no funding 
for direct victim services. Two-thirds of the States use Social 
Service Block Grant funds to support APS. Eliminating it would 
shut down APS in some States. Also, SSBG funds many of the 
community services, like home-delivered meals, necessary to 
keep victims at home.
    Financial exploitation is generating an ever-increasing 
number of reports. It is especially complex and difficult to 
investigate. It is not only often perpetrated along with 
physical and emotional abuse and neglect, but its victims 
frequently lack cognitive capacity and require multiple 
interventions.
    Federal regulatory agencies in 2013 issued a guidance to 
financial institutions to clarify that Federal law does not 
prohibit reporting elder abuse to the proper authorities, but 
many banks will not provide APS with the clients' financial 
records, which APS must have to substantiate that abuse is 
occurring. NAPSA believes financial institutions are permitted 
to share such records under statutory exceptions to prevent 
fraud and respond to authorized investigations. A revised 
Federal guidance clarifying that client records may be shared 
with APS in a timely manner would mean financial abuse could be 
stopped much earlier. I believe financial institutions would 
welcome this clarification.
    Second, financial institutions should be granted the 
authority to temporarily freeze accounts when there is evidence 
the owner is being defrauded--for example, they are sending 
money to a Jamaican lottery scam--in order to provide time to 
contact APS or take other measures.
    I hope this Committee and Congress will look at their own 
decades of research into elder abuse, some of which are on 
evidence here--this is a partial stack of all the many reports 
from the many, many hearings that go back almost five decades 
now--will look at its own decades of research into elder abuse 
and begin to invest in stopping and preventing it so its 
incidence rates can be reduced as they have been for other 
family violence victims. This not only will protect older 
persons' lives and assets over the long term, it will also 
reduce demands on Medicare, Medicaid, and other publicly funded 
programs.
    On behalf of dedicated APS workers across this great 
nation, we thank you for holding this hearing and for all of 
your work on behalf of older adults. We hope this will be the 
first of a sustained series of hearings and actions to address 
elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation, and we stand 
ready to work with you to greatly strengthen our ability to 
protect our parents and our grandparents. Thank you.
    Senator Scott. Thank you, ma'am, for your testimony.
    I know that Senator Collins has already introduced you, Ms. 
Ulrey, but we would love to hear your opening comments.

             STATEMENT OF PAGE ULREY, SENIOR DEPUTY

            PROSECUTING ATTORNEY, ELDER ABUSE TEAM,

                KING COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

    Ms. Ulrey. Thank you, Senator. My sincere thanks to Chair 
Collins, to Ranking Member McCaskill, and to the other honored 
members of the Committee. I am Page Ulrey. I am a prosecutor 
with the King County Prosecutor's Office in Seattle, 
Washington.
    Fourteen years ago, I was appointed to be my office's first 
Elder Abuse Prosecutor. Since then, with the exception of a 
two-year hiatus, I have been prosecuting cases of elder 
financial exploitation, neglect, physical assault, sexual 
assault, and homicide.
    A recent case that I handled involved an esteemed community 
member of Kent, Washington, a town just south of Seattle. 
Kenneth Sharp was a Rotarian, a businessman, and running for 
city council. His mother, Helen, was in her 80's and had 
dementia, but she was in good shape financially. She owned her 
home free and clear and had plenty of money to cover any care 
needs for the rest of her life. Ken, her son, was her Power of 
Attorney and handled her finances.
    In 2008, Ken Sharp began to steal from her, first by making 
transfers from her bank account to his, and then by lying to 
get a reverse mortgage on her house and taking those proceeds, 
too. During the next four years, Ken Sharp stole over $490,000 
from his mother for a new house, a diamond ring for his 
fiancee, his business, and to fund his lavish lifestyle.
    In 2011, Helen's daughters figured it out and called the 
police, who investigated. We then filed seven counts of felony 
theft and one of mortgage fraud against Sharp. Helen was moved 
to a nursing home closer to one of her daughters.
    What was the impact of this exploitation? After learning of 
it, Helen kept opening her purse to look for her money, certain 
that she had misplaced it. Helen's daughters were robbed of 
their entire inheritance. The family was torn apart. With no 
money left, Helen was forced to go on Medicaid. She died just a 
few months ago, heartbroken.
    That is how it is with elder financial exploitation. We all 
pay the price--seniors, their families, and all levels of 
government, and the price is huge. Countless victims like Helen 
Sharp lose their life's savings, their health, and their 
independence as a result of financial exploitation and are 
forced to rely on Medicaid, Medicare, housing, and other public 
programs. We still do not know the overall cost of elder 
financial exploitation, but it is safe to say that the cost to 
the government alone is astronomical.
    The Federal Government can do three things to begin to 
address this problem. First, create infrastructure to help the 
criminal justice system at the local, State, and Federal levels 
handle these cases. In the Sharp case, we did have some 
infrastructure in place, but not enough. We had a specialized 
Elder Abuse Detective and a specialized prosecutor, but we had 
no victim services to help Helen Sharp and her daughters 
navigate the many obstacles they faced as a result of the 
exploitation. Most jurisdictions do not have any of these 
specialized experts, as Senator McCaskill has already pointed 
out, which means that most of these cases are never pursued. We 
also need a National Resource Center to which criminal justice 
professionals can turn for information and assistance.
    Second, develop and conduct training. Justice systems 
professionals need training. Do those in the many other 
disciplines that encounter elder abuse and could intervene if 
they knew what they were seeing. I am talking about doctors, 
nurses, EMTs, notaries public, caregivers, social workers, 
civil attorneys, accountants, and those in the financial 
services industry.
    Third, fund research, data collection, and pilot tests. 
Unnecessary ignorance is a huge chronic hurdle. We urgently 
need funding to expand our knowledge about how best to reduce 
financial exploitation, recoup the huge losses that it causes, 
and screen for cognitive impairment, which dramatically 
increases risk.
    We also need accurate calculations about the cost and 
dimensions of the problem so we can develop a commensurate 
response.
    The Sharp case that I told you about concluded two weeks 
ago. Ken Sharp pled guilty, as charged, and was sentenced to a 
high-end sentence of 43 months in prison. He will be ordered to 
pay restitution to the family for the money he stole and to the 
government for the Medicaid funds it paid for Helen's care.
    I wish I could say that this case was a complete victory, 
but I cannot. While we were able to obtain some justice for the 
Sharp family, it is almost certain that neither they nor the 
government will ever get their money back. The emotional damage 
that was done to the Sharps can never be undone.
    Every day, all around us, elder financial exploitation is 
devastating countless elders and their families and costing the 
government countless dollars, but this is a problem with 
solutions. With modest investment in improving infrastructure, 
training, and research, Congress and Federal agencies can 
dramatically improve how we prevent and respond to this 
terrible problem.
    Thank you very much.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much for your testimony. I am 
happy that I was able to hear all of two of the witnesses and 
part of the other two witnesses, and, of course, I have read 
your written testimonies.
    I want to thank the members of the Committee who have 
joined us, Senator Scott and Senator Casey, since I last 
acknowledged everyone.
    Ms. Shaw, I want to start with you because in your written 
testimony, you talked about what you described as a guardian 
angel, Effie, the manager of a credit union, who alerted you to 
the fact that your own mother might be a victim of abuse. Could 
you tell us a little bit about that, and also, are there 
obstacles to financial institutions coming forward and 
reporting abuse, such as privacy laws or other regulations that 
might make them hesitate, even if they have evidence of 
exploitation?
    Ms. Shaw. Yes. Thank you very much, Senator. Yes. I grew up 
in a small town in Northern Maine, one of four children. Like 
many children in small towns in Northern Maine, I went to 
college and moved away, along with my two brothers, but my 
sister stayed behind to pursue her education. My mother became 
a legal secretary when she graduated high school for a small 
law firm in our small town and remained there for 60 years.
    My father died at the age of 57 and he was sort of the 
socialite in our family. My mother's big social activity really 
was her regular visits to the credit union, so she came to know 
the people in the credit union very well. As my mother neared 
her retirement, Effie at the credit union noticed that she was 
not talking about her grandchildren quite so much. She was not 
caring for her hair and her clothes the way she had before. She 
became a little--Effie became a little concerned, so she looked 
at my mother's bank accounts and realized that there was a 
strange automatic withdrawal coming out of Mom's checking 
account.
    My sister is on that account with my mother, and so Effie 
called Cathy and said we should look into this, and found Mom 
was concerned about living on Social Security when she retired. 
Her law firm had no retirement plan available to her, and so 
she had fallen victim to one of these work-from-home scams. 
Fortunately, Effie and my sister were able to identify it early 
on and stopped the scam, and my sister had the good foresight 
to take my mother to see her doctor and learned that my mother 
has early stage dementia and is now getting treated for that. 
We might not have identified it as early on if Effie had not 
come into the picture, and we are very grateful to her.
    That was before Senior$afe, but that is one of the reasons 
why I spent two years helping to develop Senior$afe. It is 
clear to me that people at banks and credit unions are on the 
front line.
    I think that they sometimes are hesitant to report because 
they do not have that feedback loop that I was talking about. 
They make a report to Adult Protective Services, but would not 
hear back about whether or not there really was a problem, 
whether it was correct for them to make that referral. There 
are also privacy concerns.
    I think it is very helpful in the State of Maine, now with 
Senior$afe, they have that feedback loop. There is also 
immunity for reporting to Adult Protective Services, which I 
think is very important.
    I would agree with Ms. Quinn that it would be helpful to 
further clarify the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to make it perfectly 
clear that it is not a violation of Gramm-Leach-Bliley to make 
these reports to Adult Protective Services or other appropriate 
State or Federal agencies or law enforcement. The guidance that 
the eight Federal regulators put out in September 2013 was 
helpful, but I do think that further clarification may provide 
additional comfort to financial institutions.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Marshall, how difficult was it for you to figure out 
what was happening to your mother, particularly since she, in 
her very last years, was suffering, from dementia?
    Mr. Marshall. At first, quite frankly, my stepfather had 
passed away in 2002 and I was working toward settling his 
eState, and he had total recall on a good day but played too 
much Mr. Lawyer, and I learned a little--enough to then look 
south from Vermont, and in that case to New York, and I 
realized instead of my grandmother being cared for, she was 
being compromised, and I did not know what to do. Luckily, 
there were some caretakers and staff of my grandmother's and we 
had mutual trust and I could find out. Having those first line 
of defense and those who were interested in my grandmother so 
helped.
    What happens is the greatest concern that we had was her 
psychological abuse and her manipulation. Quite frankly, I went 
to a friend and I asked him--and he had been through similar 
circumstances--he said, ``Philip, follow your heart first, then 
follow the money.'' I was able to obtain enough documentation 
on financials, which, coupled with other components of my 
guardianship, allowed us to get immediate temporary 
guardianship and then permanent guardianship. These other 
aspects of elder abuse are so difficult to really document, in 
my case, certainly, the financials so helped.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Mr. Marshall. Thank you, Senator.
    The Chairman. Senator McCaskill.
    Senator McCaskill. First, Mr. Marshall, how quickly did law 
enforcement get involved in your grandmother's case?
    Mr. Marshall. Law enforcement actually got involved--I had 
filed a petition for guardianship in July 2006 and law 
enforcement got involved in October 2006, after this, at that 
point, alleged forgery was brought before the District 
Attorney.
    Senator McCaskill. Let me turn to Ms. Ulrey. You know, I 
know--I do not know how you managed to get the police in King 
County and in metropolitan Seattle and how you got the King 
County DA Office--I think your boss or maybe your previous 
boss, I do not know who started this, has done a great thing. I 
think it is important for us to understand the barriers around 
``it is not big enough,'' and this is the constant refrain that 
families hear from law enforcement.
    There is not a gun. There is not blood on the street. It 
is--there is not pressure from the sergeant or the head of 
detectives to close the cases because this is not a statistic 
that is generally tracked. There is very little to get the law 
enforcement community engaged other than a prosecutor who feels 
pressure from either their own compass or from some outward 
source.
    What would be the thing that we could do that would most 
light a fire under local law enforcement and State DAs?
    Ms. Ulrey. Senator, I think that is an excellent question 
because I think that--basically, many of these cases stop when 
that message is heard in the community that prosecutors are not 
going to prosecute the case. APS does not bother referring to 
law enforcement. Law enforcement does not bother investigating. 
The public does not bother reporting. Having a prosecutor who 
is stepping up and saying, ``we will take on this issue,'' is 
crucial to its being addressed properly.
    I was lucky enough to have a boss who keyed into that very 
early, and that was thanks to Paul Greenwood, who is a 
wonderful elder abuse prosecutor in San Diego. There is also a 
grant right now going on by the Office of Violence Against 
Women that funds training across the spectrum of the criminal 
justice system so that it gets law enforcement, prosecutors, 
Adult Protective Services, and victim advocates together at the 
table to be trained on how to respond to these cases. The 
communities that have gotten that grant have really begun to 
take on this issue in a very dramatically different way. That 
is one potential solution, is to expand that program. Right 
now, I think it is the smallest program that OVW funds.
    The other thing is I think that more prosecutors would take 
this on if they had training, and so going back to my point 
about the need for infrastructure, I do think prosecutors would 
care and would be willing to take on these cases if they 
understood how to prove them, but there are huge knowledge 
issues here. We do not know how to deal with capacity issues, 
which are so common in these cases. We do not know how to 
handle the analysis of the financial documents, which are also 
crucial to prosecuting these cases. We do not have doctors to 
talk to. We are really lacking the tools that we need to start 
responding properly.
    I think it goes back to training, to encouraging 
prosecutors to create dedicated prosecutor positions, and then 
encouraging multi-disciplinary teams, as well.
    Senator McCaskill. In your world, who are--let us assume 
that the police department gets a report or the DA's Office 
gets one directly. Who are the capacity evaluators that you 
call on? Are they through the probate court or are they through 
Adult Protective Services?
    Ms. Ulrey. There are some that we call on through the 
probate court who are experts who simply do most of the probate 
court evaluations. There are also some that APS uses. I do 
quite a few trainings of law enforcement officers in different 
parts of the country and that is the one refrain that I keep 
hearing from them. Actually, there are two refrains I hear. One 
is the prosecutors are not prosecuting these cases, even if we 
investigate them, and two is, we have no one to do these 
capacity evaluations. That is another very important need that 
we need to develop.
    Senator McCaskill. Well, the prosecutors are going to be in 
town in the next week, two weeks. Many of you may have been 
contacted by them to come to your office and visit. This is a 
great time for us to bring up with them how many elder abuse 
cases they have filed in the last year, and I intend to do 
that.
    Ms. Ulrey. Wonderful.
    Senator McCaskill. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
    We are going to recognize Senators to do questions in the 
orders of their arrival.
    Senator Warren.
    Senator Warren. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. You 
know, I just want to say congratulations on your new 
Chairmanship, and it was a great honor to work with you in the 
past two years on the Aging Committee and I very much look 
forward to your leadership in this Committee.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Warren. Thank you. I am also looking forward to 
serving with Ranking Member McCaskill. I know the leadership of 
both of you will be wonderful here.
    We are discussing the financial exploitation of our 
seniors, and on that topic, I am particularly concerned about 
helping seniors protect their retirement savings, particularly 
the money in their 401(k)'s and their IRAs. I would like to 
focus for just a minute on the financial advisors who take 
advantage of people who rely on them.
    In a recent study, Harvard researchers sent actors 
disguised as customers to banks and brokerages to get advice on 
their retirement portfolios and they found that the advisors 
consistently steered customers to the highest fee products. A 
2013 GAO study found the same thing. In other words, the 
bankers and advisors gave themselves a great deal while they 
gave their customers a lousy deal, and this can cost customers 
a lot. Even a one-percent increase in fees could cost a retiree 
$100,000 in savings over their career.
    What I wanted to ask about, Ms. Shaw, is what can we do to 
make sure that our seniors do not end up investing their 
retirement savings in funds that benefit the brokers more than 
they benefit the customers.
    Ms. Shaw. Thank you, Senator. Certainly, I have supported 
the position of NASAA, the North American Securities 
Administrators Association, to encourage the Securities and 
Exchange Commission to adopt a Uniform Fiduciary Standard. I 
would also say that disclosure is very key, as well, disclosure 
of the fees, disclosure of the information. An informed 
investor is an investor who is going to be better protected. 
Certainly, working toward including a more robust disclosure of 
fees, of the product components--products are very complex--to 
make sure that all of that is made perfectly clear to investors 
before they invest, and to make sure that any product, 
retirement product or otherwise, that any investor is put in is 
suitable for that investor.
    We do want advisors who should be working--we hope that 
they are working in the best interests of the investor. I would 
be naive to say that every advisor is operating in the best 
interest of their client.
    Senator Warren. Well, I appreciate your raising that, Ms. 
Shaw, because I think it is a very important point. Russel 
Kinnel, the Director of Research at Morningstar, which is a 
leading investment research company, made this remark about 
high fees. Quote, ``If there is anything in the whole world of 
mutual funds that you can take to the bank, it is that the 
expense ratios help you make a better decision.'' In every 
single time period and data point tested, low-cost funds beat 
high-cost funds.
    Now, high-fee products may result in less money for our 
seniors, but, of course, they do mean more money, as you point 
out, for banks and other investment advisors. To make matters 
worse, according to a study by AARP, more than three-quarters 
of individuals do not even know that most of these salespeople 
do not actually have to offer investment advice that is in the 
customer's best financial interest.
    Ms. Shaw, are you worried that because investment advisors 
do not have to advise in the customers' best interest, that 
this might give an unfair advantage to bad actors who push 
products that benefit themselves over good actors who are doing 
everything they can to help their clients reach a secure 
retirement and protect that retirement?
    Ms. Shaw. It is certainly a concern, and it is part of the 
strong investor and consumer protection that has been a part of 
my agency since the days of Senator Collins running our 
department in Maine. It is an area that we look at in Maine and 
that we are looking at through NASAA through many different 
lenses, including you may be aware NASAA did a fee study not 
long ago. We are working very closely with industry to improve 
fee disclosure. They are at the table working with us to 
improve fee disclosure and to provide ways in which consumers 
and customers can, hopefully, make better comparisons before 
they make decisions.
    There is a long way to go, and it takes only a few minutes 
to look at our office's website to see some of the enforcement 
actions we have taken against advisors to see that there are, 
indeed, bad actors out there. We plan on staying the cop on the 
beat.
    Senator Warren. Well, good. I want to thank you very much 
for your work. I want to thank all of you for being here today.
    You know, we need to do more to protect our seniors, but 
also particularly to make sure that financial advisors do not 
steer their clients into retirement products that maximize the 
advisors' profits while they drain away the clients' savings. 
That is particularly important for our seniors who just do not 
have the ability to recover from this. Thank you very much. 
Thank you, particularly, Ms. Shaw, on this, and thank you all.
    Thank you, Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Tillis.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you, Madam Chair, and ladies and 
gentlemen of the panel, thank you for being here. I am sorry I 
am late. I had a vote and two other Committee meetings, so it 
is not for a lack of interest in this.
    Ms. Shaw, I had a question for you. Prior to coming here, I 
was Speaker of the House in North Carolina and I am interested 
in the Senior$afe program and appreciate Maine's leadership in 
that. Can you tell me a little bit about any challenges that 
you all had in the process of implementing that program and the 
benefits.
    Ms. Shaw. I think that the first challenge that we 
experienced was really getting to the point where the banks and 
credit unions were comfortable making the referrals to the 
Office of Securities. The other key component of the program is 
to make sure that there is this partnership and collaboration. 
We say this is a ``no wrong door'' approach. In other words, a 
report could be made to any of the partners. If the report is 
made to Adult Protective Services and they determine that they 
do not have jurisdiction, a bank or credit union need not be 
concerned that that is going to be the end of the story. APS 
has committed that they will then make that referral to our 
office so that we can assess it and either refer it to another 
agency, or if the senior needs other community-based resources, 
perhaps a referral to a domestic violence program, we will make 
sure that that happens.
    I would say that the key components are to make sure that 
there are two points of entry in State government, not just 
Adult Protective Services, and that there is a very strong 
partnership with all available community-based resources. It 
has to be a public-private partnership. Multi-disciplinary is 
the only way to go.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you for that. Is there any focus on 
expanding the scope, using this as a platform for kind of using 
big data in other areas to potentially extend out to providers 
or just other areas that would be outside of the net that banks 
and credit unions may be able to provide, like a phase two or 
phase three of Senior$afe?
    Ms. Shaw. Yes. Thank you for that question. We have taken 
the concept of Senior$afe and we have now modified it for use 
by law enforcement. Law enforcement very soon will have 
something called a RADAR card that is the size of a summons 
book that they will all carry with them with red flags and 
reporting options available to them. We are doing the same for 
first responders, emergency medical services, and we have just 
been approached by direct care workers and in-home support 
workers to modify Senior$afe for their purposes. I am pleased 
to say in March, we will be providing a version of Senior$afe 
to one of the national broker-dealers, their local reps.
    Senator Tillis. Well, coming from a State that has one of 
the fastest growing senior populations in the Nation and 
someone who knows a few of the House legislators there, do not 
be surprised if we do not invite you to come down and share 
your story, because I think it is a great story. It needs to be 
replicated and we need your leadership.
    Ms. Shaw. Thank you.
    Senator Tillis. I had another question for whoever would be 
appropriate on the panel and it has to do with Medicare scams 
and something as simple--maybe not so simple---as the Social 
Security numbers still being printed on the cards. I know that 
there have been bills introduced to see that through. CMS has 
said it is very expensive. In the order of priorities if you 
were spending money, give me some sense of where something as 
straightforward as that fits and things that you would like to 
see us allocate resources to, anyone on the panel that would 
have an opinion on it.
    Ms. Shaw. I do not know that I could speak specifically to 
that issue, but I will tell you that I think one of the largest 
barriers that remains is the prosecution area. We have lots of 
programs that educate. We are including training programs. 
Actually identifying elder financial exploitation and getting 
that investigation and prosecution, to me and the State of 
Maine, is one of the key components that we need to be able to 
address.
    Senator Tillis. Thank you all. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chairman. Ms. Quinn, did you want to add to that?
    Ms. Quinn. Well, just that having Social Security numbers 
readily available is clearly--opens a huge door for scams of 
all kinds. We do not--you know, APS deals mostly with family 
abuse and family exploitation, so we do not deal directly with 
Medicare fraud, but just as a citizen, it seems obvious that 
that leads to problems.
    Senator Tillis. The reason for my question, I think there 
are a variety of areas where we probably need to find ways to 
free up resources to make progress here. You hear about this 
one and try to get some sense in an area of scarce resources, 
does it rise to that top priority or somewhere in between in 
the face of all the things that we should probably be 
considering trying to find a way to fund. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Casey.
    Senator Casey. Madam Chair, thanks very much. 
Congratulations on your Chairmanship, and Ranking Member 
McCaskill, the same, as well.
    I am glad that you focused on this topic for what I guess 
is the first hearing, and we are grateful for that. I want to 
thank the panel. I know, like many of us, we were in and out 
with votes and other activity, but we are grateful you are 
here. I did not hear all of the testimony. I heard close to 
half, probably, but we are grateful that you are here.
    We are especially grateful that you are bringing to this 
hearing and to these issues not only your experience and your 
expertise, but also in many cases your own personal stories and 
that of your families, and that is both illuminating for us in 
terms of the stories you can tell, but also I know that is not 
easy all the time to talk about your own families.
    I wanted to focus just for a moment, Ms. Shaw, on 
Senior$afe, and a couple of questions. One is the elements of 
it, or the component parts of it, meaning the agencies that 
comprise it. I am looking at page three of your testimony. If 
my count is right, you have, I guess, about six or seven--I am 
not sure--different entities that are part of it.
    I guess the first question I would ask is that there is an 
obvious multi-disciplinary approach that you bring to it, and 
that is something you have all spoken to in one way or another. 
I guess the basic question is, how difficult was it to pull all 
of those entities together, and is there something about 
Senior$afe that is particularly suited to or more appropriate 
for the State of Maine, or do you think it could be a model for 
other States around the country?
    Ms. Shaw. I strongly believe that it can be a model for 
other States. In fact, we have turned Senior$afe over to NASAA, 
to the North American Securities Administrators Association, to 
be modified for use by all of NASAA's members, which include 
all of the States as well as the Canadian provinces and 
territories. The Province of New Brunswick is very interested 
in Senior$afe and we hope will be attending a training that we 
will be doing in Northern Maine.
    I think that the time has come and that everyone recognizes 
that it is time to address this issue. It was not difficult to 
get these partners to come to the table, to put everyone's 
resources. I was once asked if this was funded by a grant, and 
the answer is no, that we all agreed to commit our own 
resources to make Senior$afe work.
    I think that everyone understands and appreciates that we 
must, and we are, all responsible for addressing elder abuse 
and financial exploitation. It is not hard to get players to 
the table.
    Senator Casey. In Pennsylvania, we have one of the oldest 
States by demographics of any. I think we are, depending on 
what year you look at, third or fourth. We have not only a 
substantial challenge just because of the numbers, but also a 
challenge because we are a State that is fairly decentralized, 
67 counties, and people tend to identify more with their local 
community than any kind of statewide sense of where they live 
and how they focus on their lives.
    We have a whole range of good programs in this area that 
sometimes emanate from or are partnered with prosecutors' 
offices, like the State Attorney General, a lot of great 
efforts at the local level, as well. We may be calling upon you 
for other advice as I try to give advice to folks at the State 
level. I did a lot of auditing, or the head of the State 
Auditor General's Office years ago, and that work got us into 
those issues and examining those agencies.
    I wanted to, just for the panel, as well, to ask if you are 
designing, certainly at the State level, but more broadly, if 
you are designing any program to combat this kind of abuse, 
what are the basic elements of it? I mean, I know from some of 
the testimony it obviously has to be interdisciplinary. You 
have to have a lot of research. You have to have a coordinated 
strategic approach, but maybe if we can just--and I know we 
have about 40 seconds, but Ms. Ulrey, can you start with just 
what you would hope would be the component parts of a strategy.
    Ms. Ulrey. I think I laid them out in my report, as well, 
if you want to look at that at some point, Senator. I think, 
having, again, specialized, dedicated law enforcement, 
prosecutors, and victim advocates is absolutely crucial. In my 
State right now, we have legislation pending that just creates 
authority for information sharing between all the different 
agencies that would participate in a multi-disciplinary team, 
because these teams are happening all over the country in 
different versions, and if we can create that ability to share 
information more easily, I think we will encourage their 
growth.
    I also just wanted to point out how important this is 
simply as far as the scale of elder financial exploitation is 
concerned. In a fairly recent study that came out of New York, 
we found out that for every one case that comes to light, 
another 44 are never reported. Your question about multi-
disciplinary teams and how we deal with this as a system, I 
think, is crucial, because I think this problem is only going 
to get worse and we are going to be looking at a real crisis 
very soon. Thank you.
    Senator Casey. Thank you.
    Ms. Quinn.
    Ms. Quinn. I completely agree that a multi-disciplinary 
approach is ideal. I also think that a strong, well-trained 
Adult Protective Services system is the necessary, but not 
sufficient, response to this problem. It is APS that gets the 
reports, by and large. It is APS that goes out to the victims' 
homes. It is APS that is totally victim-centered, to see what 
it is the victim needs, how can we make that victim safe.
    Many, many reports of elder abuse are not criminal, to be 
honest, or they will never rise to that level. It may be an 
inadequate--you know, it may be a developmentally disabled 
adult child living at home who is now paying the bills and they 
are not getting paid. I mean, it can look like financial 
exploitation, or there are problems as a result of that.
    I think then, absolutely, APS should operate in a multi-
disciplinary field, where it has law enforcement, where it has 
prosecutors, where it has medical advice, where it has legal 
advice. I do think that the basic premise is that we have a 
system in every community where a well-trained social worker 
can go out and see what that victim needs, what kind of, you 
know, abuse is occurring to them, and how can that be resolved.
    Senator Casey. Thank you. I am way over, so Ms. Shaw, I 
will skip you, and Mr. Marshall, if you do not mind submitting 
it in writing, that would be great.
    Senator Nelson. Madam Chairman, may I take a point of 
personal privilege----
    The Chairman. Absolutely----
    Senator Nelson [continuing]. to congratulate you and to 
congratulate Senator McCaskill and to tell you that the 
participation and the interest of the members is quite 
significant. Thank you for your leadership.
    The Chairman. Well, Senator Nelson, I was about to 
acknowledge you because we had such a great partnership when 
you were Chair of this Committee and I was thrilled that you 
decided to stay on the Committee and continue to share your 
insights and expertise with us, so thank you for that, too.
    Senator Gillibrand.
    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and 
congratulations to you and Senator McCaskill for chairing this 
Committee. I think it is an amazing agenda that you have put 
together for this Committee. I think the issues that you are 
shining a spotlight on are exactly the ones that need our 
efforts, so thank you both for your leadership.
    I am going to continue the line of questioning about law 
enforcement, specifically to Mr. Marshall. From what we have 
read and heard, your grandmother was subjected to a horrible 
set of circumstances perpetrated by close family members and 
predicated on Alzheimer's. We have an Alzheimer's crisis in 
this country that is very real. The unfortunate truth is that 
she was not alone. Millions of New York seniors fall victim to 
the same kinds of circumstances, to consumer fraud, resulting 
in about $180 million worth of economic loss.
    With your grandmother's case, the majority of seniors are 
victimized by family members, most often an adult child. As 
with the majority of the abuse cases, your grandmother's case 
was within the jurisdiction of a District Attorney's Office, in 
particular, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Now, in 
Manhattan, we have an Elder Abuse Unit, one that is led by 
Prosecutor Elizabeth Loewy, a well-known expert on elder 
exploitation issues. Can you share for us how the structure of 
the Elder Abuse Unit and having an advocate like Elizabeth 
Loewy helped you and your family?
    Mr. Marshall. What happened is after we went through the 
ordeal of guardianship, where we did not know if we were going 
to go to court--we basically had about a three-month battle 
there--at that very moment after we settled the guardianship, 
it was, as I mentioned before, the time when Liz Loewy as the 
lead, eventually the lead prosecutor, came in with the Elder 
Abuse Unit. What was--I really have to appreciate how 
respectful her office was to those who could have walked away 
from my grandmother, caregivers who could have walked away and 
gotten a better job, who stood out, and staff and other 
friends, but in particular, so many people in other completely 
different circumstances are actually re-victimized by the 
system. The District Attorney's Office and Liz Loewy's Elder 
Abuse Unit was so considerate of where we had been and what the 
ordeal as we began, as an investigation was begun that fall.
    Senator Gillibrand. To Ms. Ulrey, how would having 
dedicated Elder Abuse Units be able to help DA's Offices and 
law enforcement catch predators, particularly recidivists, who 
are targeting our seniors very methodically? Do you have 
additional testimony you would like to give in terms of why 
having a specific structure might be useful?
    Ms. Ulrey. I will tell you that from my own experience, 
when I started my job, there were no elder abuse cases coming 
into our office at all. Part of my job as a prosecutor of elder 
abuse cases was to go out and do trainings and create a multi-
disciplinary response, and as I did that and trained law 
enforcement on how to recognize and investigate these cases and 
created a multi-disciplinary response, the cases started 
flowing in.
    I think, when you have those dedicated positions and have 
an actual Elder Abuse Unit, then law enforcement will get the 
training they need and they will bother doing these 
investigations. Without that, they are not going to bother, 
because these cases are complicated. They require a forensic 
accounting of financial documents. They require capacity 
evaluations, as we have talked about. They are very complex. 
Unless we have dedicated prosecutors who have been trained and 
have the support that they need, the cases will never actually 
get filed.
    Senator Gillibrand. One of you mentioned that one funding 
stream that you have been able to use is through the Violence 
Against Women Act. There is a small, the smallest grant program 
that is accessible. What recommendations do any of you have for 
this panel about how, on the Federal level, we could help you 
reconstruct that kind of training prosecutor's office by 
prosecutor's office? What kind of funding streams or incentives 
do you think we could create federally that would make this 
more probable in more District Attorneys' Offices around the 
country?
    Ms. Ulrey. I mean, I think expanding the OVW grant would be 
a huge step forward. I think creating more nationally sponsored 
trainings for prosecutors would be very, very important. I also 
think we need to have some kind of resource center so that 
prosecutors and detectives can turn to a group with experienced 
people involved who know how to advise them on cases and can 
give them the information they need. I think all of that 
development of infrastructure would make a huge difference for 
us. I also think that we need victim advocates who are trained 
in this area and can help these victims. I think the 
combination of those things would take us much further than we 
are now.
    Senator Gillibrand. Other panelists, do you have any 
thoughts on ways we can help you do your jobs better?
    Ms. Quinn. APS needs a lot of similar resources. We need to 
really--we are very grateful that we have funding from ACL to 
have a modest APS resource center, the first ever. We could use 
a much stronger resource center so we could provide training 
across the country. There are some States where people go out 
and make decisions about vulnerable people's lives with no 
training, or some on-the-job training or shadowing somebody who 
has been there a while. I think we need the same kind of 
infrastructure.
    There is an APS data system underway which will tell all of 
us enormously more than we know, not just about APS, but about 
elder abuse in general. That needs to be fully developed and 
implemented across the country. We need the training. We need 
research, as Page mentioned. We need a lot more research, what 
works, what does not work, what works in these type of cases, 
not other type of cases. It is really--Secretary Greenlee says 
we never built the system and we need to build the system. 
Also, encouraging and supporting multi-disciplinary teams.
    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you to each of you for your 
testimony. It has been very helpful. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator.
    Before we turn to Senator Kaine, I just want to acknowledge 
that Senator Tim Scott and Senator Donnelly were both here 
earlier. They each have been called to other appointments, but 
both of them, I know, are very interested in this issue, and I 
appreciated Senator Scott helping to provide coverage while we 
were all going to vote.
    Senator Kaine.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
    The Chairman. Thank you for joining the Committee. We are 
very delighted to have you as a new member.
    Senator Kaine. I am thrilled to be on it. The powers that 
be noted that this Committee was entirely too youthful and 
vigorous and they wanted to add somebody with graying hair and 
receding hair to it, and that is why I am here.
    It is great to be with you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member 
McCaskill, and this has been important testimony.
    A lot of your testimony has focused on multi-disciplinary 
approach in Maine, the pulling together the stakeholders. Mr. 
Marshall's testimony, that was tragic in the personal instance, 
at least eventually there was a well coordinated response, but 
you do have in your testimony an indication that sometimes a 
fragmented system kind of re-victimizes people who have been 
through this. I am kind of interested in you giving us a report 
card about our Federal efforts.
    A GAO report in 2012 indicated that the seven Federal 
agencies that work on the problem of financial fraud being 
perpetrated against seniors, which would include the National 
Center for Elder Abuse at HHS, Consumer Financial Protection 
Bureau's Office for Older Americans, Federal Trade Commission, 
Department of Justice, Postal Inspection Service, Securities 
and Exchange Commission, and the Treasury Department Financial 
Crimes Enforcement, there is a recommendation that they should 
work together in a more coordinated way so that they are not 
duplicating, but also not leaving gaps.
    What is your sense, as folks who are active and expert in 
this world, to the degree to which the Federal agencies that 
each have part of this in their jurisdiction really work in a 
coordinated way or what more work could be done to improve 
that?
    Ms. Quinn. Well, I think that the Elder Justice 
Coordinating Council that was formed, created in the Elder 
Justice Act, and which has been implemented, I think that has 
made tremendous progress, because quarterly, all those major 
agencies come together, and I suspect some of them had never 
thought about elder abuse before having to come to those 
meetings and give a report on what their agency is doing. I 
know my organization has worked very closely, for example, with 
the Social Security Administration to address problems with 
representative payees who are exploiting victims and how Social 
Security can work more effectively with APS. There is a pilot 
project underway, and I think that is being replicated across 
the board, where there is really much more activity and 
awareness of this issue.
    Senator Kaine. Other thoughts?
    Ms. Shaw. I think one thing I would say is that State 
Securities Regulators certainly work well together and work 
well with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In my role as 
Co-Chair of the Maine Council for Elder Abuse Prevention, one 
initiative that we are undertaking is we have formed a working 
group to try to look at multi-jurisdictional scams, things like 
Jamaican lottery scams and the like, and we have asked the U.S. 
Attorney's Office and other Federal agencies to come to the 
table to see if we can think about a program where the States 
can identify these problems and serve as a theater, if you 
will, for the Federal agencies to try to develop that critical 
mass, if you will, to try to find a way. Can we be the eyes and 
ears that can then feed cases up to the Feds? It is in its very 
early stages, but those types of initiatives, perhaps, will 
help.
    Senator Kaine. One of the areas--I am sorry, Ms. Ulrey. 
Were you going to----
    Ms. Ulrey. I was just going to briefly say, Senator, that I 
know the Department of Justice is building an elder abuse 
website right now that has the potential to really help and 
reach a lot of different people. The OVW is also doing a lot of 
excellent work. There are a lot of different agencies that are 
doing this work. My perception is that they are all severely 
underfunded, and so they have one or two people working on 
these elder abuse issues that are gargantuan. I think increased 
funding--I know that is the refrain, but I think, again, it is 
really needed here.
    Senator Kaine. There are some members of the Budget 
Committee here and we are starting to work on that right now, 
so I appreciate that comment.
    The one--you know, for every one reported case, there are 
44 that go unreported. That is a pretty sobering statistic. One 
of the things we ought to be thinking about together with you 
is how to increase the amount of reporting. In my limited 
experience in this area as a lawyer in private practice, often, 
people who are subject to some kind of financial abuse, there 
was a professional in their life, whether it was an accountant 
or somebody who was aware what was going on. Sometimes that 
professional would report it and help and sometimes they would 
not. ``I do not want to get involved in a family thing,'' or 
whatever. Do you have suggestions for us about ways in which we 
could increase the amount of reporting, especially by 
professionals who work with senior citizens who become aware 
that there may be warning signs?
    Ms. Ulrey. One thing I wanted to let you all know about was 
a program, actually, that is happening in Missouri right now. 
Ron Long with Wells Fargo has created a unit of elderly--it is 
called the Department of Elderly Client Initiatives, and it is 
a number of different professionals within Wells Fargo's 
brokerage firm who are dedicated to advising all of their 
employees on concerning cases of elder financial exploitation. 
I think those kinds of models for training are absolutely 
essential in the financial services industry.
    We also get a lot of our referrals from Adult Protective 
Services. In our State, the mandatory reporting laws require 
that elder financial exploitation be reported only to APS and 
not to law enforcement. APS does not have adequate tools and 
the research is not adequate to screen for capacity, they end 
up missing out on a lot of the cases and they decide the person 
is choosing to be exploited or to give their money away. They 
close their case. The referral never makes it to law 
enforcement. Also focusing on research and training, both for 
APS and law enforcement with regard to this capacity issue, 
would be a very large step forward.
    Senator Kaine. Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate 
your answers.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Blumenthal, welcome back to the Committee.
    Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Chair Collins, and thanks to 
you and Senator McCaskill for having this hearing and beginning 
on such a profoundly important note.
    I saw this problem for many years when I was the State 
Attorney General in Connecticut, sought to stop it, and while 
here continued to encounter it in cases of constituents who 
were affected by it. One very notably, Robert Matava, a Marine, 
World War II veteran, who was brutally abused financially by 
his children, in a sense, not unlike your situation, Mr. 
Marshall, and as a result of his experience, I sponsored in the 
112th Congress the Robert Matava Exploitation Protection for 
Elder Adults Act, which increases the Federal penalties for 
fraud directed at senior citizens as well as exploitation--
Federal penalties, because I believe there is Federal 
jurisdiction, improved ability for the government to collect 
statistical data, because I agree with many of you that there 
is too little factual and evidence-based information about it, 
and provided resources for the Federal Government to give to 
the States for training, technical assistance, pilot grant 
programs in developing best practices, the kind of support that 
a number of our colleagues have referred to here. I am pleased 
to be working with Senator Ayotte on that legislation and 
hoping to reintroduce it soon.
    The area that I would like to focus on, which, in a sense, 
is the elephant in the room, is under-reporting, the shame and 
stigma that causes so many of these cases to be unreported, the 
feelings of embarrassment and excuses and sometimes love for 
relatives, children, or others who are actually exploiting 
them, and dependence and fear. There is a combination of 
feelings that result in this under-reporting, and I want to 
thank you, Ms. Quinn, for including in your citation some of 
the numbers here, which are really staggering.
    Elder abuse is vastly under-reported. Only one in 23.5 
cases is reported to any agency. For financial abuse, it is one 
in 44--one in 44 financial abuse cases is reported, which makes 
it very difficult, if not impossible, for the best prosecutors 
in the world--and I have been a prosecutor, not one of the best 
in the world--to take this kind of action, and for neglect, it 
is one in 57.
    I am looking at some of the State laws that apply to 
reporting, and looking at who the mandated reporters are, 
rarely are they financial institutions under State law, which 
is the primary basis for requiring reporting. I am wondering 
whether you would endorse more States adopting laws that 
require reporting. You know, certain people are mandated 
reporters, for example, for child abuse, schools and others. 
For financial abuse, the same concept applies.
    Should financial institutions, and you have mentioned--one 
of you mentioned accountants who knew about it, or maybe 
Senator--I think Senator Kaine actually did, quite 
appropriately--should they be required to report? If they are 
put under the legal onus, they cannot say, you know, ``I am 
worried about my client,'' ``I do not want to lose my client,'' 
``This is a family matter,'' much as it now is in schools for 
children or in other situations. Doctors, for example, are 
mandated reporters for abuse, elder abuse, too. Should this not 
be a requirement for financial institutions? Some States do, 
but it is only a minority.
    Ms. Ulrey. I would be delighted if that were made the law. 
Washington State a few years ago passed a permissive reporting 
statute that simply gives financial institutions protection if 
they do report in good faith, and it has helped tremendously in 
our getting the cases on our desks. I think it would be, 
obviously, a huge, very powerful message to send if we were to 
make it a mandated situation.
    I think we also, though, if we do that, have to include 
training in that reporting law. We have a lot of mandatory 
reporters in Washington of elder abuse and many of them, even 
though they are mandated to report, do not even know that they 
are mandated to report because there is no training of them. As 
long as we include that training component, I think that would 
be a wonderful idea.
    Senator Blumenthal. Ms. Quinn.
    Ms. Quinn. I agree, and I would just add, as I said, that 
part of the reporting should be providing APS with the records, 
client records. APS cannot prove abuse if they cannot see the 
records, and a lot of cases go unsubstantiated. The money 
continues to drain away. Thank you.
    Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Well, I will say just by way 
of full disclosure, my own State of Connecticut does not have 
this requirement. The Chairwoman's State of Maine does not have 
it. My colleague, Tim Kaine's State of Virginia has no mandate, 
and the same is true of Senator McCaskill's State. We have four 
States where this kind of requirement is not attributable to 
them. I do not mean in any way to cast aspersions on them, but 
there is a lot of potential here for making a difference by 
mandating reporting, not just permissively, giving them the 
cover, in a sense, the relief from any liability, but making it 
their burden, legal burden. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much.
    I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. 
You can see by the turnout we have of Senators on both sides of 
the aisle who came by that there is tremendous concern about 
elder abuse, and Ms. Quinn, your testimony, your written 
testimony had some statistics which I want to close the hearing 
with, because they are truly extraordinary and show us that we 
have just begun to scratch the surface of the scope of this 
problem.
    In your testimony, there was a chart that indicates that 
there are approximately five million victims of elder abuse 
annually. In contrast, there are 1.25 million victims of child 
abuse and 2.3 million domestic violence victims. We abhor crime 
whether it is toward a child, in particular, or domestic abuse, 
but there is much greater awareness of child abuse and domestic 
violence, and yet the incidence of elder abuse is far higher. 
Perhaps one of the benefits of this hearing is it has put a 
spotlight on an issue that people are not talking enough about, 
are not enough aware of, and where State, private agencies, 
Federal efforts really need to be ramped up, particularly since 
we know in our country that the population that is 85 and older 
is the fastest growing part of our population. It is just 
exploding, and thus, this problem is only going to get worse.
    I, too, am interested and will ask for the record your 
recommendations on what we can do at the Federal level, whether 
it is the reauthorization of the Elder Justice Abuse Act or the 
Older Americans Act, which we are about to do, by the way, and 
have reported it from the Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions Committee just last week, or whether it is modifying 
Gramm-Leach-Bliley to make sure that financial institutions 
report legitimate concerns to Adult Protective Services or 
State Securities Administrators without fear that they are 
going to be violating privacy laws.
    Whatever your recommendations are, we would really welcome 
them, and I very much appreciate your coming forward, talking 
about personal experiences as well as your professional 
experiences. I think this was an excellent first hearing, as is 
shown by the great participation that we have.
    The Committee members will all have until Friday, February 
13--I think we should have chosen a different day, but it is 
Friday the 13th--to submit questions for the record.
    Before I close the hearing completely, I want to yield to 
my Ranking Member for any closing comments that she might have. 
Senator McCaskill.
    Senator McCaskill. Well, I think there are things we can do 
from the bully pulpit of our offices that can help make a 
difference. I want to thank all of you.
    I particularly want to recognize you, Mr. Marshall. I 
cannot imagine the emotional trauma and roller coaster that you 
must have been on, and I think all of us who try to put 
ourselves in your position, which was exacerbated by the 
profile of your grandmother and what she represented to a much 
larger community than your family, and knowing that you were 
going to become the victim of prurient news interests about 
this very impressive and elite woman in New York. I 
particularly--I want to thank you and I want to thank the 
prosecutor's doggedness, because I love prosecutors who are 
dogged.
    Thank you all very much.
    The Chairman. You love all prosecutors.
    Senator McCaskill. I love all prosecutors, but especially 
ones that are dogged.
    The Chairman. Again, my thanks to all our witnesses. I want 
to thank each of you for the important role that you have 
played in increasing our understanding of this truly 
devastating problem.
    That concludes our hearing. Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 4:06 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]

      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
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                                APPENDIX

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                      Prepared Witness Statements

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