fizkes - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
When Beverley Schottenstein was 93-years-old, she decided to teach her grandsons a lesson about elder fraud.
She won $19 million in her arbitration case against J.P. Morgan, the biggest bank in the U.S., and her grandsons, Avi and Evan Schottenstein, who were brokers there for five years. They had been mismanaging her $80 million fortune, making unauthorized transactions without her knowledge.
Beverley’s fortune is from a multibillion-dollar retail empire her late husband helped to create. The stores included Value City, Big Lots, and American Eagle Outfitters. She was also lucky enough to be born into wealth that she inherited from previous generations.
Her grandsons were able to make hundreds of transactions by refusing to talk to her about the investments they were making. Every time she asked about the state of her finances, they simply told her that she was in good hands.
After she insisted that they get her approval before making any trades, she stopped receiving brokerage statements. She also noticed unexplained credit card charges and shredded documents.
She reached out to Jamie Dimon, the CEO of J.P. Morgan, but no help was offered to her. Finally, she went to arbitration through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) because investors cannot take their brokers to court.
According to Cathy, Beverley’s granddaughter and the first cousin of Avi and Evan, her grandsons had falsely claimed Beverley had dementia, causing J.P. Morgan to lock her out of her own account.
Beverley won the case against the bank and her grandsons in February of 2021. Evan and the bank were found guilty of fraud and elder abuse.
They were ordered to pay Beverley $19 million for damages, legal fees, and repayment of the funds they stole from her.
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