How Could You? Hall of Shame-Edward Drones and Laura Wiley-Drones UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Anchorage, Alaska, adoptive parents Edward Drones, 61, and Laura Wiley-Drones, 57, spent all but $15.05 of their adopted son’s $824,000 legal settlement!
“A grand jury handed up an indictment Wednesday for Edward Drones, 61, and his wife, Lori Wiley-Drones, 57, that alleges two dozen counts of felony wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The state of Alaska put the boy — called “A.D.” in the indictment — into the Droneses’ custody as a foster child in 1996, when he was 5 or 6 years old. The Droneses formally adopted him in 2001, the indictment says. The couple sued the state for “failure to protect” A.D. in 2005, claiming the boy, who was born to a drug- and alcohol-addicted mother, had been allowed to live with his abusive and neglectful father, according to the lawsuit.
The state agreed to pay the boy about $824,000 just before he turned 18, and the Droneses moved to have a conservator appointed to control the boy’s money, the indictment says.
“Wiley-Drones told the court that A.D.’s property would be ‘wasted and dissipated unless proper management is provided,’ ” the indictment says.
A year after the settlement, Wiley-Drones told the court-appointed conservator the teenager had decided to buy a house. The conservator objected to that idea, as well as to a subsequent request by the adoptive parents to be paid more than $1,600 a month for A.D.’s care, the indictment says.
The Droneses eventually got the conservator removed and took control of the boy’s finances, including a bank card they used to drain his accounts, the indictment says.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the adoptive parents took an average of $1,000 a day in their first month controlling his funds. They went on to buy a $220,000 home in Washington state, spent $49,000 on vehicles for themselves when A.D. did not have a driver’s license, and dropped more than $25,000 on expensive jewelry for the adoptive mother, among other items, the indictment alleges. They also made about $124,000 in online payments for bills on credit cards that were not in the boy’s name, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In the end, the Droneses spent all but $15.05 of A.D.’s $824,000 settlement, the prosecutors say.
Edward Drones was arrested in Anchorage on Wednesday, according to court documents. Lori Wiley-Drones was arrested in Washington the same day.
Federal prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the Washington home, a mobile home in Anchorage and more than two dozen items of women’s fine jewelry, according to the indictment. The prosecutors also say they will seek as much as $775,000 in cash.”
Couple charged with draining adopted son’s bank account
[Anchorage Daily News 5/31/12 by Casey Grove]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Evil!
Update:“U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that two Anchorage residents were sentenced on five counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false income tax return.
Lori Wiley-Drones, 57, and Edward Drones, 62, were each sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason, to 46 months in prison, to be followed by three years’ supervised release. The court ordered the defendants to pay a total of $829,417.74 in restitution to the victim.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Sayers-Fay, who prosecuted the case, in 1996 the Drones became foster parents to a child who had experienced abuse. The Drones later adopted this child and then filed a lawsuit on his behalf charging the State of Alaska with failure to protect. The lawsuit resulted in establishment of a trust fund of over $830,000 for the child.
According to information presented in court, in March 2009, after the child’s professional trustee declined Lori Wiley-Drones’ demand that the child purchase the family’s home, the Drones began arranging the removal of the professional conservator in favor of Edward Drones, who falsely stated that he had not filed for bankruptcy in the past ten years. When Edward Drones assumed control of the child’s trust fund in December 2009, he assured the state court that he understood his obligation to keep the child’s property separate from his own and never to use the child’s property for his own benefit. However, upon gaining control of the trust account, Edward Drones immediately shared this control with his wife. The defendants admitted that over the next ten months, Lori Wiley-Drones and Edward Drones spent virtually all of the trust money. In one instance, Lori Wiley-Drones bought and renovated a house in Washington with the child’s trust money. The Drones used over $125,000 to pay credit card bills, $67,088 to purchase cars, and $38,000 to purchase jewelry. By December 2010, only $15.05 remained in the child’s trust account. The Drones filed a false income tax return by failing to report any of the more than $700,000 in misappropriated funds as income in 2010.
In sentencing the Drones, Judge Gleason observed that by decimating their adoptive son’s trust fund, the Drones destroyed his ability to trust people, which was an attribute all the more precious because of the trauma he had endured in early life. The judge noted that the sentence she imposed reflected that this fraud was particularly damaging: the victim’s biological father compromised his childhood, and then the Drones compromised his future – and for things like Coach Purses, fine jewelry, clothes and cars.
“This type of fraud is as damaging as it is heartbreaking. The sentence reflects the need to protect those who are our most vulnerable individuals and deter those who would trade on and take advantage of that vulnerability”, stated U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler.
Kenneth J. Hines, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in the Pacific Northwest, indicated he was pleased with the 46-month sentences for Edward and Lori Wiley-Drones and stated, “Being a parent is one of the most important things we will have the pleasure of doing in our lifetime. So when greed clouds people’s judgment to the point where they cause harm to their children, as a law enforcement officer it’s my duty and responsibility to vigorously pursue the investigation. This sentencing proves that in our community, crimes against the vulnerable will not go unpunished.”
Ms. Loeffler commends the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division for the investigation of this case. ”
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