‘My aunt didn’t declare $1.2M in additional income over 5 years.’ Their Aunt Ripped Off Their Grandmother for Years So This Person Got The IRS Involved And Got Financial Revenge
by Matthew Gilligan
It’s always heartbreaking to hear stories about elderly people getting scammed and ripped off by total creeps.
And it’s even worse when those creeps happen to be their own family members.
Yes, it’s sad, but absolutely true.
And one Reddit user shared a story on the website’s “Pro Revenge” page where they told folks a pretty wild tale about how they got even with an aunt of theirs who definitely got what was coming to her in the end.
The story started when the person’s grandma was approaching the end of her life and she had only one wish for her remaining years.
Scumbag Aunt ripped off my Grandma for years, I put my nose in her business and had the IRS ruin her.
“This happened about 5 years ago. My Grandma was getting old, late 80s/early 90s. She had one wish, to not pass away in a senior home. Easily done as my Grandpa sold some assets way back when, then invested the money and let it ride for 30+ years; he never touched it and collected a pension.
Way back when my Grandpa passed away, (about 10 years before this), my Grandma appointed my dad, this terrible aunt and my uncle as the Trustees of the trust. Basically the trusted advisors for her and her care for the foreseeable future.
All was well in the beginning, then my dad (Willy) moved further away and couldn’t take care of the day to day upkeep as the Trustee and to see that my grandma was ok. My aunt (Rebecca) told her that she and my uncle (Fred, who lived in Arizona) could take over and all would be fine. It was fine for a while.
Things seemed to have been going fine for grandma but the person’s father started to suspect that something wasn’t right when he’d go to visit her…and something definitely seemed off about the aunt who didn’t live far away.
A few times my dad went back to visit and noticed my Grandma didn’t always have overnight care or that her mail wasn’t picked up and the driveway wasn’t plowed. She also lost her cable TV and newspaper subscription. My dad figured it just lapsed so he had the services put back on.
My dad also noticed my grandma was eating moldy food at times because her truck was sold and she had no transportation (she drove up to 90 years old). She basically just chilled at the house alone and did crossword puzzles. The craziest part of this is that my aunt only lived 2 miles from my Grandma, but my Grandma told my dad she saw aunt Rebecca once a week on Saturday for about 1 hour.
Sadly, grandma passed away…and that’s when things started to get pretty interesting…and the person’s aunt was at the center of it again.
As with the elderly and age, my grandma passed away. She did get her wish and was able to pass away in her own home. Upon her ***** things started to get real interesting. Once the probate lawyer got her children (my dad, aunt, uncle and another estranged aunt (Becky)) around the table some shady business started to come out.
My aunt Rebecca asked that everyone just forgo any audit or paperwork and they just sell the house (for around $400K), and divide up the remaining back account balance of roughly $400K. So just signing on the line, each sibling was to get a check for $200K, not too bad of an inheritance. My dad thought that was somewhat a little rushed.
He said at the time that he wanted to wait because my Grandma’s house was easily in the $600K range based on size and location. My aunt exploded in his face, cursing at him and calling him all kinds of names because he was unwilling to sign the assets then and there. She basically wanted a quick close while everyone looked the other way.
The group took some time and ended up back at the bargaining table to try to hammer out more financial details.
My dad ended up leaving the room after the screaming and the deal wasn’t signed that day. It took nearly 6 months before another appointment and they were all back at the table. The thing is though, when you are a trustee and the person passes away, the funds and access to financial accounts are all under heavy scrutiny until all beneficiaries are made aware and sign the final papers.
At the next meeting, my dad went in there with no intention to sign the deal. He got his brother (my uncle Fred) to agree that they audit the entire account(s) going back 5-years.
When they demanded this again at the meeting with the lawyer, my Aunt ended up arguing that a forensic audit would cost $5K and it’s a waste, like what difference does it make? Two beneficiaries requested it, so it was what was going to happen. The audit report showed up about 3 months later.
And then things started to get even more interesting…
Here is where it gets good.
My dad began looking over the audit report saw it was full of holes, like excessive monthly food costs for a 90 year old lady. Payments made for car services for a car my grandma no longer had. Many different things in there they just didn’t add up. My dad asked me to give the audit a second look, so I spent a Saturday night going over it, and here is some crazy stuff I found (and alerted my dad about):
Costco monthly food costs of $1100-$2000 for the last 4 years.
Telephone bills for 6 cell phones (grandma has a home phone only)
Gasoline for a truck my grandma didn’t have for like 4 years, and easily $400/month
House repairs paid to my aunt’s husband who owned a construction business, some of the house repairs were like $16K for a new roof, new garage doors, home security system which she didn’t have, etc, all inflated prices.
And the details continued to shock and horrify the family as they continued to come to light.
Grandma paid for my Aunt to go to Europe twice on vacation.
My grandma was paying my estranged aunt Becky a stipend of $2K a month for the last 5 years, as well as her loser son for $2500. Every month they were paid.
All grandkids were to be paid a lump sum of $10K upon their 30th birthday as that is when the $50 check from Grandma stopped for all grandkids. Guess who was paid out, her kids and my estranged aunts kids, but not me or my siblings.
My grandma gave loans to my aunt Rebecca for her husbands construction business in return for equity in the company, which amounted to nothing. These loans totaled about $200K over 3 years, right around when the housing bust happened.
It seemed like all those years of hard work for grandma and grandpa went down the drain because of one person.
They also sold her assets like jewelry and what not for cash, because some big ticket items simply vanished from her house Armed with all this, the next probate meeting was interesting. In the time between my Grandma’s ***** and the 3rd probate meeting, my aunt’s construction business filed for bankruptcy so that $200K in equity grandma had, simply vanished.
The aunt eventually had no choice but to come around and play ball after the family and the lawyer involved learned of all the details.
The probate lawyer was also somewhat concerned and makes it obvious that this was fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, where my aunt could actually get real prison time. After this, the negotiations were much more favorable. My aunt got nothing, literally zero, my other aunt only received $25K after all the stipend payments. My father and uncle shared the rest, after all grandkids received the $10K payout. The house sold to the first offer for $520K.
That was the regular revenge for any treacherous woman that ripped off grandma and had her eating moldy food.
And then it was sweet, sweet revenge time for the person who wrote this story.
Here is the pro revenge.
My aunt probably felt pretty bad that she couldn’t supplement her lifestyle with Grandmas money anymore, but that was the least of her worries. Since she tried to personally rip me off for $10K, I took it personally.
I don’t care how tough you are, the IRS is the scariest thing that can happen to a person, nobody wants to have their money forcibly removed. I did a little research and found the 3949-A I also had the audit and legal office could/would provide the full trust in requested (demanded by the IRS), I don’t know if it ever was.
They got to work and decided it was payback time.
So I photocopied my documents, had then notarized and send off the info to the IRS. I felt like it went nowhere, then maybe 18 months later I was notified and asked to come to the IRS building for an appointment in my city.
The agent went over all the details, what they found in their research and then they asked for a sworn statement. It turns out my aunt didn’t declare something like $1.2M in additional income over 5 years, and as such she owed the IRS around $420K plus penalties.
And, wouldn’t you know it, the aunt finally got what was coming to her after all those years of ripping off her own family members…you don’t mess with the IRS!
There was no way she was going to pay that on a teachers’ pension and after her husband’s bankrupt his business. Her house was sold, her vehicles sold, and they left the state. Now aunt and uncle live in a depressing desert town like this in the southwest.
The IRS paid me around $60K about 3 months after the appointment. She should have paid that $10K.”
Here’s what people had to say.
One Reddit user said the IRS rewards people who share info like this.
Another individual had a similar story to share.
This individual said this is depressingly common and they know from experience.
Another Reddit user sees a lot of bad business in the bank where they work.
And this individual thinks this person had a lot of warning signs…
In case you didn’t know, you can be turned in to the IRS.
So you better be careful!
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.