Crime & Courts

Former attorney sentenced for stealing millions from Anchorage woman

A disbarred California attorney was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from an elderly Anchorage woman. With the help of an ex-Alaska nurse, 61-year-old Philip Eric Myers convinced the victim and her daughter to sign documents and invest money into accounts they controlled.

Myers and Brian Ben-Israel, the 53-year-old former employee of Meridian Psychiatric Consulting Group, pleaded guilty in September. The former said he was guilty of mail fraud and wire fraud, resulting in a 64-month sentence.

According to affidavits, the two men befriended Juanita Gielarowski and her daughter, Linda Stowers. After Ben-Israel became Gielarowski's care provider, huge chunks of the elderly woman's trust were transferred into the two men's bank accounts.

They stole more than $2 million between May 2007 and August 2009. The money was intended for Gielarowski's long-term care, according to an Alaska U.S. Attorney's Office press release.

According to the family's lawsuit filed in state civil court, Ben-Israel sometimes asked Gielarowski to sign documents while she was not wearing her glasses. Stowers, the daughter, had fallen in love with Ben-Israel, the documents say.

The victim reportedly signed control of the trust over to the men in 2007, around the same time her health began to deteriorate. For the next two years, Ben-Israel and Myers used Gielarowski's money to travel and funneled millions to Myer's company, Typhoon Investments, which he claimed developed weapons and explosives-detection technology.

The money, set aside by the widow's husband for her care, ran out and Gielarowski lost her house to foreclosure in 2009. She died in a nursing home the next year while her family sued to get her money back, the press release says.

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At the time of Myer's sentencing, he'd been convicted in three other cases involving thefts from elderly or dependent adults in California. In each of those cases, he embezzled money from trusts he'd set up for his clients.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline said Myers' history of exploiting vulnerable victims was extremely serious. The goal of society is protection of the elderly and vulnerable, and Myers has seriously impacted society's view of the legal profession, he said.

The State of California disbarred Myers from practicing law one year ago.

Myers was ordered to pay restitution of more than $1 million. Gielarowski's estate was previously awarded $7 million in punitive damages during a civil lawsuit.

Ben-Israel was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in December for three charges, mail and wire fraud and filing false tax returns. He's serving his time at the federal correctional institution Butner Low, a low-security prison in North Carolina.

Contact Jerzy Shedlock at jerzy(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @jerzyms

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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