A dapper but cruel swindler admitted today that he stole more than $300,000 as the "personal banker" of a dementia-plagued, 94-year-old Manhattan woman.
Edward Lewando, 52, of Holbrook, LI, spent his victim's money on himself at Bergdorf Goodman and Louis Vuitton, prosecutors with the Manhattan DA's Elder Abuse Unit said.
Lewando will serve a three to nine prison sentence and hasn't paid back a cent. The victim, Helen Korne, died ten months after his arrest -- fully aware, despite her other mental frailties, that her trusted banker had stolen her life savings.
"Financial abuse of senior citizens is the most common form of elder abuse," DA Cyrus Vance said after Lewando's plea and sentencing. Often, as in Korne's case, victims are preyed on by trusted caregivers, the DA said.
Lewando is the former employee of no fewer than six banks, met Korne when he worked at City National Bank. He talked the then-91-year-old's family into letting him consolidate her multiple bank accounts into one, and to letting him pay her bills.
Weeks later he lost his bank job -- but still made regular visits to Korne's home, setting check after check in front of her, often made out to cash, and telling her to sign them.
"He took advantage of his role as a private banker, and a trusted fiduciary -- to enrich himself and feed his lavish lifestyle," Elizabeth Loewy, who heads the DA's Elder Abuse Unit, told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cassandra Mullen.
"He exploited a woman in her early 90s who was living a happy and somewhat modest life -- and stole over $300,000 from her over a period of two years," she said.
Swindler cops to stealing more than $300K from elderly dementia victim
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Swindler cops to stealing more than $300K from elderly dementia victim
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Swindler cops to stealing more than $300K from elderly dementia victim
