A Detroit judge and three others are charged with embezzling nearly $300,000 dollars from wards of the state — using the ill-gotten gains for a new car and personal investments.
Andrea Bradley-Baskin, a judge on Michigan’s 36th district court, is accused of stealing from the estates of incapacitated individuals in a $273,000 conspiracy involving their court-appointed guardians, a group home operator and even her own father.
Adults who the courts determine are unable to manage their own finances are labelled incapacitated wards and are assigned guardians or conservators to do so for them, according to a federal indictment.
The judge is accused of swindling $70,000 from a ward to invest in a local bar, US Attorney Jerome Gorgon, Jr. announced Friday.
Bradley-Baskin is also accused of stealing money from another ward to pay for the two-year lease on a new Ford Expedition.
“We respect the authority that covers a black robe. This state judge and her cronies allegedly abused that high honor for personal gain by preying on the needy protected by the court. This would be a grievous abuse of our public trust,” Gorgon said.
Bradley-Baskin, 46, and her father, Avery Baskin, are attorneys who represented a firm that was appointed to manage the estates of incapacitated wards in over 1,000 cases, according to the Department of Justice.
The firm, Guardian and Associates, run by indicted co-conspirator Nancy Williams, would distribute funds from the estates of vulnerable individuals to the judge and her father, as well as to group home operator Dwight Rashad, according to officials.
Bradley, 72, Rashad, 69, and Williams, 59, are accused of swiping $203,000 from a ward’s legal settlement and spending nothing on the individual.
Guardian and Associates would even pay out sums to Rashad for individuals who didn’t live in any of his facilities, the indictment claimed.
The four were all slapped with conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges.
“Regardless of a person’s position in society, no one is above the law. These four defendants allegedly conspired to steal from some of our most vulnerable citizens,” FBI Special Agent Jennifer Runyan said in a statement.
Bradley-Baskin is also charged with one count of making a false statement to a federal law enforcement agent.
Bradley was charged with one count of wire fraud, and he, his daughter and Rashad all received multiple money laundering charges.
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