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Con-artist son wipes out elderly mother’s million-dollar nest egg
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By Jordana Divon | Daily Brew
If Keith Olbermann is looking to fill up his Worst Person in the World roster tonight, he might consider awarding all three slots to Roman Kaziuk, a Hamilton, Ont. native who conned his 88-year-old mother out of her million-dollar fortune — a move that left her penniless and living in a Salvation Army-run shelter.
As detailed in the Oakville Beaver, a judge sentenced 57-year-old Kaziuk to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of abusing the power of attorney his mother had given him to put unauthorized mortgages on her property for his own use.
He was convicted for fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000.
Though the amount for which he was ultimately put away hovered around the $20,000 mark, the court learned Kaziuk had previously pulled the same stunt twice before: once in April 2007 for $98,000, and again in September 2008 to the tune of $65,000.
In a statement she gave to police in 2009, Feliksa Kaziuk said she previously owned two condos, a car, and counted over $1 million in the bank.
But on Sept. 12, 2011, the bank seized her properties thanks to the fraudulent mortgages her son had taken out in her name. She was unable to pay them off because he had also taken her car and drained her bank account.
With two bags of clothing to her name, she moved into an Oakville homeless shelter, where Det. Constable Traci Smith testified that some of Feliksa's clothing had been stolen and the menu there does not accommodate her Type 2 diabetes.
Kaziuk's laundry list of felonies includes 69 prior convictions for fraud, larceny, forgery, and theft, and it was that history, in addition to the nature of his crimes against his own mother, that moved Ontario Court of Justice Lesley Baldwin to triple the sentence suggested by the Crown.
"Not even the notorious Bernie Madoff was guilty of destroying his own mother, as Mr. Kaziuk has repeatedly done," Justice Baldwin said in her judgment, referring to the New York investment banker who stole millions from his clients. Mr. Kaziuk "has wiped her out financially and broken her heart."
"Mr. Kaziuk would rip off the wings of all the angels in Heaven and sell them to the devil for his own gain if he could," she said, adding that Kaziuk exhibited the characteristics of a psychopath and showed no hope of rehabilitation.
To illustrate his skill as a seasoned con, Baldwin also noted a 2009 incident in which Kaziuk managed to convince his former lawyer, Peter McPhie, that his mother had died and he needed $20,000 to pay for her burial. McPhie acquiesced.
Feliksa and her now-deceased husband settled in Hamilton after arriving from Poland in the late 1940s. According to the Globe and Mail, the couple adopted Roman, their only child, when he was four years old.
During the trial, Kaziuk said he enjoyed a great relationship with his adoptive parents and that he was "not responsible for the situation that his mother was now in."
Thankfully, two support services have decided to take a different kind of responsibility. On the recommendation of investigating officer Det. Const. Jeff Springstead, both Links and the Community Care and Access Centre (CCAC) will now be involved in Feliksa's care.
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