Blanche Laurens was a hell of a good woman. Born in March 1921 in Bogota, Colombia, she was a doctor of pharmacy, like her brother Jean, three years older. Together, they manage a pharmacy from the 16th arrondissement of Paris to their retirement. They live not far away, in the building belonging to their family. Blanche divorced at 46, had no children and never remarried. She is very close to Isabelle, the only daughter of Jean, who lives at the same address. “She often talked to me about her niece in very complimentary terms, testifies an old neighbor. There was affection and mutual tenderness between them.” Endowed with a solid character, Blanche remained at her house, in her large apartment on the fifth floor, until her death in January 2013. Isabelle, 57 years today, discovers that her aunt was disinherited, eight years after having designated him. Its heritage, estimated at more than 20 million euros between France and Colombia, must return to two diocesan associations, that of Paris, and that of Embrun and Gap chaired by Monsseigneur Di Falco, former spokesperson for the Conference of Bishops of France, then auxiliary bishop of Paris. “They established a hand on the life of my aunt” The old lady dictated her last wishes in June 2012, seven months before her death. At the time, the nonagenarian weighs 40 kilograms, could no longer use her left arm and walks with difficulty. She frequently falls, neglects her hygiene and sometimes shows herself aggressive with those around her. The deterioration of his physical and neurological state worries Isabelle. The increased influence exerted on his parent by his lawyer, Maître Jean-Christophe Bernicat, also-he will later become the Council of Diocesan Associations. On the occasion of a hospitalization of Blanche at the American Hospital of Paris, the business card of the lawyer is stored in the medical file at the “Personal person to be warned” section – usually, it is the name of his brother Jean who is registered there. The lawyer assistant to him the services of a wealth manager and a secretary. “They have established a stranglehold on the life of my aunt, on his daily life, on his health”, today judges Isabelle. Blanche complains that he is “signing white checks”. “We take advantage of a person, she is bedridden, she loses the ball, and that’s it,” she slips to her niece. Lucidity access? On April 2, 2012, Jean Laurens asked for the supervision of his sister. The expert psychiatrist requested, Doctor Jean-Philippe Badin, believes after in-depth examination that “Madame Laurens is mainly reached in terms of judgment: she professes total autonomy and does not see that this is no longer the case”. According to him, she probably suffers from a “brain degeneration”. Neuropsychiatric examinations with contradictory results is two months later that Blanche designates diocesan associations as legatees of his fortune, specifying that his brother and niece “showed no affection, no sense of the family”, and evokes the endless legal procedure which opposes his elder about the succession of their brother Pierre died ten years earlier. In September 2012, a second medical examination contradicted the previous one. The neuropsychiatrist finds the old lady “slightly reduced, but almost physiologically, having regard to her age”. “She does not want any particular protection,” he said. In November, a third expert even argued that “a private protection measure may start its psychic balance”. The time, Isabelle made a curious discovery in the apartment of her aunt: a copy of the questionnaire used to assess the cognitive capacities of a patient stuck to the wall of the room, as well as a sheet lising some essential information (his income, his heritage, the name of the President, notably). “There is no doubt that these documents were used for the preparation of Blanche Laurens in order to manipulate the result of upcoming psychiatric expertise,” asserts Isabelle’s lawyer, Maître Christophe Ayela. A hearing of the guardianship judge is set for January 25, 2013. That day, Blanche was hospitalized in an emergency. It goes out the next day. An abuse of weakness of weakness every two days by the successive deaths of his father, his mother and his mother-in-law, reduced by a burn out, his niece will wait eleven years before filing a complaint for abuse of weakness against the notary of his aunt and for concealment of abuse of weakness against diocesan associations-which “completely dispute the accusations Right to attack for “slanderous denunciation”, according to their lawyer Maître Olivier Morice. But above all, it was in the fall of 2023 that Isabelle will finally get their hands, thanks to his lawyer, on essential documents: two hospital reports, from 2010 and 2011, concluding one and the other that a “demented with frontal syndrome”. “It is easier to characterize the abuse of weakness and to convince the magistrates when there is a medical file”, Pointes Master Johann Petitfils-Lamaria, Lawyer at the Parisian Cabinet Picovschi. This specialist in the subject sees the stories like Blanche that of Blanche. “On a daily basis, it’s almost a file every two days,” he said. In question, of course, lengthening the lifespan, the increased social isolation of the older ones since the Covid, less unabred, more exploded families. “Fortunately, the magistrates are paying more and more attention to these cases,” continues the lawyer. And the concept of vulnerability, often linked to the weight of years and the state of health, has been extended to mental health, as well as emotional dependence. ” Difficult evidence to bring evolution: the list of professionals who cannot be appointed as universal legatees has been completed. “To the notaries, lawyers and doctors were added the bankers, brokers, psychiatrists, hypnotists, bailiffs, nurses and home aid in particular”, explains Maître Petitfils-Lamuria, who draws up the abuser of the abuser. Often a man, a beautiful speaker who makes himself essential by dint of services rendered, insidiously colonizes the daily life of the elderly and gradually cuts him from his relatives. Sometimes a woman who carefully maintains the emotional dependence of an older man. The Marseilles vessel Isabelle Lavignac knows how painful these abuse cases are, the complicated files to mount, the evidence difficult to bring. To put the odds on its side, this specialist in the subject has his method: “Arriving with a turnkey complaint and an investigation job carried out at 80%. In short, premissing the work of the investigators.” Its tenacity ended up paying, after eight long years of procedure, in the case of Renée Étienne, heir to a wealthy Marseille family. “The place was free” This childless bachelor died on July 13, 2020, at 94 years old. Three years earlier, Tracfin, the financial intelligence service of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, sounded the alarm, relating to “atypical financial operations” on the account of an independent wealth manager, Fabrice P. in particular 215,000 euros paid in the previous months by Renée Étienne, who was entitled from this fifteen five -year -old met in 2001 at Crédit Agricole. To the point of making it his universal legatee and put his life insurance in his name. The nonagenarian, who has not had all her head, has been placed under legal protection since 2017. Her tutor, by peeling her bank accounts, confirms: important withdrawals of money were made shortly before the implementation of the protective measure. The cousins distant from Renée were not worried right away. Fabrice is very caring, and she loves it. But one day, the gardener warns them: Fabrice becomes more rare, Renée complains. “Often, the intentions are not bad at the start. Confidence is established, then the future abuser seizes the opportunity and it is the drift, considers Maître Lavignac. In the case of this lady, she had no heir and wanted to leave something to this man, that is. The Marseille court did the same analysis. Last March, Fabrice P. was released for gifts received between January 1 and December 31, 2015. Deemed guilty of abuse of weakness in the following years, on the other hand, he was sentenced to a year in suspended prison and a compensation of 250,000 euros for the civil parties – he called. At the helm, Fabrice P. made this terrible admission: “The place was free…” The dilapidated fortune of Cléophée Herrmann The seniors are not the only victims of the predators. The Alsatian Cléophée Herrmann was only 11 years old when his mother died. She finds comfort with a classmate, her sister and their mother, Josiane Seiler. On the death of her wealthy grandmother in 2008, Cléophée, the only heiress of the textile empire of the Franco-Swiss family Schlumpf, finds himself at the head of a fortune of 11.5 million euros. Josiane, who has become a substitution mother over the years, joyfully dilapid for the junk, between the interest-free loan granted to the Seiler family for the purchase of an apartment, the taxi which has become the private driver of Madame, the overpriced consultations with a clairvoyant supposed to put the orphan in contact with her deceased mother (up to 50,000 euros per session), etc. Sentenced Josiane, found guilty of abuse of weakness, to thirty months in prison. She will have to reimburse 5.1 million euros for her ex-protection, now a waitress in a Turkish restaurant in the city. The two girls, also condemned, appealed. “To get there, the investigation lasted seven years and produced three volumes of parts of procedure a meter each,” observes Maître Vadim Hager, the lawyer for Cléophée Herrmann. Receive our latest news every day, selecting the main news of the day. (tagstotranslate) People u00e2g u00e9es
Abuse of weakness: threat to inheritances
