DISTRICT ATTORNEY - NEW YORK COUNTY

NEWS RELEASE
January 23, 2008

Contact: Barbara Thompson
212-335-9400

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today that the son of an elderly Manhattan woman has been indicted on charges of stealing $832,000 from her, leaving her destitute.

The defendant is DR. ROBIN MOTZ.  MOTZ, who lives in Manhattan, is a physician who practices in Englewood, New Jersey and has admitting privileges at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

The investigation leading to today’s indictment revealed that in late 2003, MOTZ took control of his 94-year-old mother’s finances through a power of attorney.  His mother, who had both investment and banking accounts, was mentally alert but had suffered from some physical ailments.  Dr. Motz misled his mother and led her to believe that he was using the power of attorney to consolidate her bank accounts to aid him in paying her bills.  In early 2004, unbeknownst to his mother, the defendant moved her investment accounts from Oppenheimer to Merrill Lynch where he maintained an account.

MOTZ immediately liquidated his mother’s investments, which had been in tax-free municipal bonds and depleted her accounts by writing checks to cover his own extensive credit card bills, making payments to a contractor who was doing work on a vacation home in Hillsdale, New York, giving $25,000 to his son, well in excess of the gift his mother had authorized, paying his Tenafly Racket Club dues and transferring $140,000 to a joint account he held with his mother.  In total, MOTZ is charged with stealing $832, 453.10 from his mother.   

The investigation revealed that after he transferred the $140,000 to the joint account, he immediately transferred the funds to his wife, in an effort to disguise the stolen funds’ origin.   The defendant continued to pay his mother’s bills, including the cost of his mother’s home-health aide’s salary, but in early 2007, he stopped paying the aide’s salary and stopped paying the maintenance charges on her Castle Village apartment.

The defendant’s mother learned of her financial predicament when her co-op levied a special assessment to cover the cost of rebuilding a retaining wall which had collapsed.  The management of the victim’s building called a social worker who then contacted the District Attorney’s Elder Abuse Unit which started an immediate investigation.

The defendant has been indicted for Grand Larceny and Money Laundering in the Second Degrees which are both punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Assistant District Attorneys Rahul Kale and Amy Miller, who are assigned to the Special Prosecutions Bureau, presented the case to the grand jury.  Assistant District Attorney Thomas Wornom is Chief of that Bureau.  Peter Chicola of the District Attorney’s Financial Crimes Bureau assisted under the supervision of Bureau Chief Frank Puma. 

Mr. Morgenthau thanked Det. Raymond Winslow of the District Attorney’s NYPD Squad which is commanded by Capt. Jay Finn.

Defendant Information

ROBIN MOTZ, 3/9/39
40 East 84th Street
New York, New York