A former Nobleboro resident was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland last week for embezzling veteran’s benefits intended for her disabled brother-in-law.
Marsha A. Jacobs, 64, of Topsham, was sentenced in U.S. District Court by U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen to six months imprisonment, six months home confinement and three years of supervised release for embezzling Dept. of Veterans Affairs benefits intended for her disabled veteran brother-in-law.
Jacobs was also ordered to pay $92,817.31 in restitution.
According to court documents, the VA was paying Jacobs’ brother-in-law about $2700 per month in benefits for service-connected disabilities. Around August 2003, the VA appointed Jacobs to be her brother-in-law’s fiduciary.
As a fiduciary, Jacobs was obliged to use her brother-in-law’s VA benefits only for him, to establish custodial bank accounts for those benefits, to make all disbursements using checks drawn on his custodial checking accounts, to keep accurate records, to obtain prior approval before disbursing over $500, and to annually account for her administration of those benefits.
In 2003, a VA employee explained these obligations to Jacobs and had her sign a form acknowledging that she understood the obligations and would be accountable for any misuse of benefits.
From October 2003 until Jacobs was relieved of her duties as fiduciary in April 2010, $242,000 worth of VA benefits were disbursed to her brother-in-law. Jacobs used some of those benefits for unauthorized purposes, such as to build an addition to her home in Nobleboro.
During this time, Jacobs did not keep accurate records and provided incomplete and false annual accountings, often misstating custodial bank accounts balances.
In April 2010, Jacobs confessed that she improperly used a substantial portion of the benefits.
In pronouncing sentence, Judge Torresen explained that Jacobs was a fiduciary who used her brother-in-law’s benefits as a home improvement account and noted that her betrayal of trust impacted her brother-in-law emotionally. The case was investigated by the VA Office of Inspector General.
