Police have arrested Joseph Aina Alama-Francis and charged him with fraudulent use of a credit card.
This may be one more apparent instance of someone financially exploiting a senior citizen.

Alama-Francis made his first court appearance Monday morning after his arrest last Friday. His hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Police have charged him with the fraudulent use of a credit card in the amount of nearly two thousand dollars. Deputy prosecutor Chris Van Marter talked about recent white collar crimes against the elderly.

"One of the cases we recently indicted is against a woman named Cynthia Young who was the niece of the victim who is 101 years old. Ms. Young is accused of stealing 78 thousand dollars from her relative's bank account."

"We're also prosecuting a woman named Noreen Joaquin who was a housekeeper for a woman named Dorothy Kirk Frederick. She got access to the victim's checking account and wrote over 60 fraudulent checks on the victim's account."

Van Marter also cited the case of a housekeeper, Rhondalynn Brandt who was charged with taking money from her employer, Harry Batten.

"They'll get a power of attorney, open up a joint account and then start making unauthorized transactions on the victim's account so in that case, mr. batten, 91 years old and his loss was well over 78 thousand dollars."


The elderly are especially vulnerable when it comes to white collar crime. They are often more trusting of the people around them. And perpetrators use a number of techniques to isolate the victim.

Van Marter said the psychological impact on elderly victims is often as devastating as a crime of violence.

"Those who would target elder victims for financial exploitation are going to find out that we're going to use every resource available to make sure they're held accountable which in our view means prison."