Attorney Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Elderly in Cape May and Atlantic Counties Out of $2 Million

A prominent Atlantic County attorney pleaded guilty to defrauding elderly clients out of millions of dollars, and laundering the funds through various accounts, including her attorney trust account, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced on Monday.

Barbara Lieberman, 62, of Northfield, pleaded guilty to first-degree money laundering.

She and Jan Van Holt, 57, of Linwood, allegedly stole over $2 million from at least 10 victims in Atlantic and Cape May counties.

Lieberman specializes in elder law and Van Holt owns “A Better Choice,” a company that purportedly offered seniors “custom designed life care and legal financial planning.”

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Lieberman be sentenced to 10 years in state prison, including 3 ½ years of parole ineligibility. She must forfeit $3 million that the state seized from her, which will be used to pay restitution to her victims. She also must forfeit her law license in New Jersey and a BMW.

Van Holt’s sister, 58-year-old Linwood resident Sondra Steen, was previously charged with second-degree theft by deception. Steen lives with Van Holt and helps her operate her company.

Susan Hamlett, 55, of Egg Harbor Township, was also previously charged with second-degree theft by deception. She worked for the company as an aid to the clients.

Charges are still pending against Van Holt, Steen and Hamlett.

“Lieberman turned the ethical precept that we should honor our elders on its head, heartlessly stealing the money that her unsuspecting clients needed to be able to spend their last days in comfort and dignity,” Hoffman said. “Some of her victims were forced into nursing facilities by these thefts because they no longer could afford to live in their homes. By putting Lieberman in prison and taking away her license to practice law, we send a strong deterrent message to anyone who would consider preying on the elderly in this manner.”

“Lieberman betrayed her oath as an attorney to uphold the law, and she coldly betrayed the vulnerable elderly clients who trusted her,” Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice said. “This guilty plea will put Lieberman behind bars, where she belongs, and require her to forfeit $3 million for restitution. Unfortunately, there is no undoing the hurt and anguish she caused victims at the end of their lives.”

“The cruel treatment against elderly victims revealed in this investigation more than justifies the strong prison sentence for Lieberman,” Col. Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, said. “We look forward to justice being served against the remaining defendants in this greed-driven scam.”

The defendants allegedly targeted elderly clients with substantial assets who typically did not have any immediate family. They would offer non-medical care and assistance, including financial and legal services.

The defendants allegedly took control of the victims’ finances by forging a power of attorney or obtaining it under false pretenses. The defendants then added their names to the victims’ bank accounts or transferred the victims’ funds into new accounts they controlled.

They would then siphon the money to pay their own expenses.

Van Holt allegedly purchased two Mercedes cars, a condo in Florida, pool supplies and veterinary bills for her pets. Lieberman allegedly used stolen funds to pay off six-figure credit card bills.

In one case, the defendants allegedly put a reverse mortgage for $195,000 on a 94-year-old woman’s home. That victim died in a nursing home because she could not afford to live in her home after her assets allegedly were stolen. Lieberman and Van Holt also executed the wills of some of the victims and allegedly continued to steal from their estates after they died.

The alleged scam ran from 2006-2013. Van Holt previously worked for Atlantic County Adult Protective Services as a case worker. After she left that job in 2006, she started “A Better Choice.”

Those who worked for the company, including Van Holt, Steen and Hamlett, performed a variety of services for clients, including household chores, errands, driving clients to appointments, scheduling, budgeting, paying bills, balancing checkbooks, and other tasks. They did not provide healthcare services. Van Holt also created a company called “Elder Hospice,” but it was nothing more than a bank account.

Van Holt and Lieberman referred clients to each other. Lieberman allegedly would prepare powers of attorney and draft wills for the victims. In some cases, she named herself as having the power of attorney, while other times she named the other defendants.

Whoever had the power of attorney allegedly wrote checks or made electronic transfers to the defendants from the victim’s account or a new joint account.

Other checks and transfers allegedly were used to pay the defendants’ bills. A portion of the money, however, was used to fund the victim’s continued expenses, allegedly to keep the victim unaware of the thefts. It is alleged that, in some cases, money from one victim would be transferred to another victim to pay expenses and cover up the thefts. If the victim owned stocks or bonds, they were cashed out and the funds were deposited into the account controlled by the defendants.

The defendants would sometimes use the powers of attorney to transfer the victim’s assets into Lieberman’s Interest on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA). Lawyers are required to maintain IOLTA accounts to safeguard funds entrusted to them by or on behalf of clients. However, Lieberman allegedly would write checks from her IOLTA account to herself, Van Holt, Steen and Hamlett.

In one instance, the defendants allegedly stole $320,000 from a woman in her 90’s. The woman met Lieberman while living at the Jeffries Tower in Atlantic City, where Lieberman offered a legal seminar for seniors.

The woman hired Van Holt, who was named power of attorney for her and executrix of her will. The victim had a son and a daughter, but Lieberman allegedly refused to discuss the victim’s affairs with them, citing attorney-client privilege.

The daughter, who visited her mother frequently, said she was not told when her mother was moved first to a nursing home in Galloway Township and later to the Eastern Pines Convalescent Center in Atlantic City, where she died in 2010. The defendants allegedly stole from the victim’s estate after she died.

The defendants also allegedly stole more than $500,000 from an Atlantic City woman who died at 91; $487,000 from a Margate couple, who died at 81 and 85; $109,000 from a Northfield woman who died at 92; $72,000 from a Northfield woman who died at 85; nearly $26,000 from an Egg Harbor Township woman who died at 90; and $20,000 from a Cape May Court House woman who is 88.

In each case, Lieberman, Van Holt and Steen allegedly continued to provide services to the victim while stealing the victim’s money. They allegedly hid their thefts from the victims while waiting for them to die.