Man Allegedly Swindles $77k from Elderly Landlord in Exploitation Case

DEBARYLIFE – Valentino Zolli, the victim, lives in Venezuela and had a real estate agent take care of his home. He told NBC6 that Bartutis would pay the rent every month through a bank transfer, so he knew which account and routing number to use.

Police say that Bartutis used this information to pay his credit card bills and some car payments. Zolli said he found out about all of these deals about nine months later when he was doing his year-end accounts.

“You’re better off saving your money under a mattress instead of the bank,” she said. Katherine Fernandez-Rundle, the State Attorney, says that adult abuse has become more common in Miami-Dade County. These past few weeks, two guys were arrested for fraud against elderly people.

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Yaroslan Bartutis is accused of paying his credit cards and expensive cars with money from the bank account of his former landlord.

“He couldn’t say why he had charged more than $77,000.” “He couldn’t show me how to pay for a Lamborghini, which would have cost thousands of dollars in credit card payments,” said Edwin Lopez, chief of police in Doral.

The bank made him mad because they didn’t send him an alert or add more protection to stop this from happening.

Jose Teurbe-Tolon defended Bartutis in court on the charge of abuse of an elderly person because the police report did not say how old the victim was. Zolli told NBC6 that he is 67 years old.

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Manuel Diaz is accused of stealing about $50,000 from his 95-year-old mother in a different case of elder abuse.

Police say Diaz got his mom to move money to a shared account after the woman’s husband died, but he later emptied it. then the 95-year-old was going to be kicked out.

“Once he knew she was going to be kicked out, he only gave her $6,000 and left. She didn’t have the money.” The person said, “Left her in the lurch.”

They were able to help the 95-year-old find a new place to live.

Diaz’s family said he is not guilty.