Son embezzled veteran benefits from his disabled father for years in Georgia, feds say
A 44-year-old man from Atlanta was sentenced to prison on charges he embezzled thousands of dollars in disability benefits given to his father from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
William F. Dorsey Jr. was tasked with overseeing benefit payments for his 69-year-old father, who has Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and dementia, prosecutors said. From 2010 to 2017, Dorsey is accused of using those benefits to cover his personal expenses.
A federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia sentenced Dorsey to one year in prison on Nov. 10 and ordered him to pay $23,052 in restitution.
Steven Paul Berne, a defense attorney who represented Dorsey at trial, told McClatchy News he disagrees with prosecutors’ characterization of the case, saying the judge determined there was no loss “other than at most $6,500.”
“What Mr. Dorsey Jr. did wrong is that he failed to keep an accounting of his expenditures on his father’s behalf and refused to turn over the fiduciary funds to a stranger,” Berne said. “Mr. Dorsey always wanted and continues to want the best care and treatment for his veteran father. There never was and there never will be any evidence that Mr. Dorsey stole from his pops, as he calls him.”
Prosecutors said Dorsey became his father’s fiduciary in May 2010. A fiduciary is authorized to make decisions on another person’s behalf, often financially, and are legally required to act in that person’s best interest.
His dad served in Vietnam and lived at the Augusta VA Community Living Center in Georgia, where he reportedly received “significant disability benefits.” The government said Dorsey’s father couldn’t communicate, used an adaptive chair, ate exclusively pureed food and “did not leave the facility to eat in restaurants.”
Yet while Dorsey was overseeing his benefits, he spent more than $3,100 on groceries, $2,200 on fast food, $1,300 at restaurants and coffee shops, $428 on dry cleaning and close to $300 on a gym membership, prosecutors said.
“The VA entrusted the defendant with the care of the Veteran’s money and to use the money only to benefit the Veteran,” the government said in sentencing documents. “The defendant instead treated the Veteran’s disability benefits as a means to pay for his own personal expenses.”
Prosecutors said Dorsey also had a job of his own and earned between $40,000 and $70,000 a year while he was his father’s fiduciary.
“The defendant’s choice to steal was not act of desperation or financial upheaval, but anunmitigated act of greed; a choice to use his father’s benefits to finance a lifestyle beyond his means,” prosecutors said.
Dorsey was ultimately accused of embezzling more than $150,000 in benefits. He was removed as his dad’s fiduciary in May 2017.
A grand jury indicted Dorsey in June 2020, court filings show, and his case went to trial over the summer. A federal jury found him guilty on one count of embezzlement.
Prosecutors requested a prison sentence and restitution totaling $78,914, saying Dorsey showed “a complete lack of remorse, and worse yet, an attitude of defiance and disrespect of the law” after he was removed as the fiduciary.
The judge ultimately sentenced him to 12 months and one day in prison with a lower restitution order than the government wanted.
“The sentence the judge gave was intended to act as a general deterrent to other fiduciaries to remind them that they need to follow the rules of the veterans administration — and that failure to follow the accounting requirements alone can be considered a crime,” Berne, Dorsey’s defense attorney, told McClatchy News.
Berne said Dorsey is sorry he failed to follow those administrative rules but that “for many years he was not told what those rules were” as he was not a professional fiduciary.
“Witness after witness testified that Mr. Dorsey was a loving and caring child who traveled weekly from Atlanta to Augusta to take care of his father,” he said.
Dorne also thanked the judge “for what was a difficult sentencing” and said they are weighing whether to file an appeal.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Son embezzled veteran benefits from his disabled father for years in Georgia, feds say."
