Englishtown Insurance Agent Raids 90-Year-Old Woman's Life Savings, AG Charges

Englishtown, NJ - A former insurance salesman from Englishtown, NJ has been charged with theft by deception and more for allegedly stealing the $305,000 life savings of a 90-year-old family friend, New Jersey's Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy said Monday morning.

His alleged theft left the elderly woman destitute and on public assistance, the AG said.

Robert Berlin, 46, of Englishtown, was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly raiding the annuity funds and selling off stocks belonging to an elderly Tom’s River resident who had been his client.

This is not his first brush with the law: Berlin's insurance license was revoked for defrauding elderly clients in 2008. However, after losing his license, Berlin opened Retro Fitness Gym in Wallington, but continued to “manage” the assets of the elderly Toms River woman, whom he had sold annuities to years before. After the woman’s daughter died in 2010, Berlin helped extended family place the woman in a private assisted-living facility and continued to oversee her financial assets.

According to the indictment, Berlin used his position as financial adviser to systematically liquidate nearly $195,000 from the woman’s annuity funds and sell nearly $111,000 worth of her stocks over a four-year period, pocketing the money for himself.

Berlin was also indicted for using the woman’s bankcard for at least $7,000 in personal purchases, including airline tickets, pet care, and gymnastic classes and after-school activities for his children, prosecutors say.

The indictment also charges him with passing a $13,000 bad check to pay the assisted living facility where the woman resided before she was evicted for non-payment.

“If these allegations are true, Robert Berlin mercilessly victimized an elderly woman who trusted him with her life savings,” said Lougy. “Instead of protecting her financial well-being, he allegedly helped himself to her money, leaving her penniless and dependent on public assistance.”

The indictment also charges Berlin with bilking a Toms River couple out of $50,000 they loaned him for renovations at his health club. Berlin, who met the couple through the elderly woman, allegedly obtained the loan under false pretenses. He never had any intention of using the money for gym improvements, and never repaid the loan with interest, as promised, prosecutors said.

By Andreas Bohnenstengel - http://andreasbohnenstengelarchiv.de/categories.php?cat_id=151, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33267980