Mattapan caregiver charged with draining elderly client's bank account and forcing her home into foreclosure

A personal care assistant for a 95-year-old woman in Dorchester faces charges that she withdrew $120,000 from her client's bank account, stole $30,000 in rent payments from a tenant in the woman's house and then forced the house into foreclosure, by taking out a reverse mortgage on it, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Dominique Emmanuel, 41, of Brockton, faces arraignment on Feb. 22 in Dorchester Municipal Court on one count of medical assistance fraud by provider and larceny over $1,200 by single scheme, following an investigation by Boston Police, the state Attorney General's office and the federal Department of Homeland Security.

According to the DA's office, Boston Police were the first to begin looking into Emmanuel, in Feburary of last year, when the elderly woman's daughter filed a report that Emmnuel was stealing from her:

The victim told police Emmanuel had been her PCA for several years after meeting her at the Santander Bank in Mattapan where Emmanuel worked as a bank teller.

A review of the victim’s will led to the discovery that Emmanuel was listed as an alternate executor of the will. The victim’s daughter then discovered her mother’s Mattapan home was in foreclosure due to a reverse mortgage of which the victim and family members had no knowledge. They also learned that approximately $120,000 was withdrawn from the victim’s Santander Bank account, which included $70,000 made payable to a construction company for work that was never done.

Additionally, Emmanuel was tasked with collecting rent in the amount of $1,800 from the first-floor tenant of the home. The tenant told investigators he had entered a rental agreement from March 2021 and he had paid the person known to him as Dominique $3,600 cash for the first and last month’s rent and $1,800 cash every month thereafter until December 2022, totaling over $30,000 in payments.

The victim never received these payments. Investigators were able to corroborate numerous cash deposits into Emmanuel’s Santander account during that timeframe.

A review of Emmanuel’s employment records from Tempus Unlimited, a personal care attendant program, showed that she had been paid for hours of work she did not perform, including days she was out of state. Records showed that she billed Tempus for hours while the victim was either being treated at a long-term care or an inpatient care facility and would not require the assistance of a PCA at home. The total Medicaid fraud loss is approximately $3,763.60.

Innocent, etc.