Disabled veterans in Texas fleeced by VA-appointed money managers

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Already a convicted petty thief, Mildred Fedd had pressing bills to pay: parking tickets, a faulty sewage system, house payments and the impound lot holding her truck hostage. So she turned to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and promised — for a small fee — to watch over an 82-year-old disabled veteran.

With his $5,000, she agreed to buy him a burial plot. Instead, the Houston caregiver paid her own bills — and got caught only after she had spent all his money and went back for more, Harris County records show.

The Veterans Affairs' Inspector General has repeatedly warned about a plague of fraud and theft in a national program that appoints family members and VA-approved fiduciaries to protect a whopping $3 billion in assets belonging to veterans the government considers too disabled to manage their own money.
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http://www.stripes.com/news/disabled-veterans-in-texas-fleeced-by-va-appointed-money-managers-1.177866

[exboyfil]

1. I have to write a check on my grandmother's behalf to

her nursing home every month using her pension and social security funds. I still wonder why the nursing home could not be designated to receive the funds directly.