A Michigan probate court trusted TriState Guardian Services to manage the affairs of people who could not manage them. Federal prosecutors say the company’s owner, Kijuana Evans, 54, of Clinton Township, and a manager took their money. An indictment announced Oct. 1 accuses them of keeping $180,000 from the sale of a ward’s home and spending $87,000 of a ward’s money on a van.
What the indictment alleges
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan says in its announcement that Evans and Lonnie Griffin, 57, of Harper Woods, “conspired to systematically embezzle funds from wards.” The Oakland County Probate Court appointed TriState Guardian Services as a fiduciary for incapacitated wards, the office says.
Two payments stand out. Prosecutors say Evans used $87,000 of a ward’s funds to buy a transit van used by Griffin’s transportation company. They also say Evans and Griffin took $180,000 from the sale of a ward’s home for themselves. A third allegation has no dollar figure: the indictment says the pair deposited the proceeds of a ward’s lawsuit settlement into their own bank account…