I want to tell those of you with elderly parents what just happened to my father-in-law.  He is a well-educated, sophisticated 88-year-old gentleman who has lived in the Chicago area his entire adult life.  He made his living in the financial services arena and has always been very conservative both personally and financially.  His wife of 63 years died about three years ago; he sold his home in March and moved into a retirment community in the northern suburbs.

He somehow met a 41-year-old woman  - he does not remember where he met her, but we suspect it was at his new retirment home.  In the past month, she has taken him for about $500,000.  He bought her an Audi S5 convertible, a Corvette, a $58,000 watch, wrote her a personal check for $150,000, among other things.  As soon as we became aware of this woman and the unusual activity in his bank account, we contacted the police, who have been very helpful, but it was too little, too late.

We know who she is, and she and her accomplice both have long criminal records.  The police think she is part of a ring that preys on the elderly, but unfortunately, there is no way to prosecute her since she took my father-in-law with her to  make the purchases and he signed the receipts and provided ID.  He was allowed to charge well beyond the supposed limits on his credit cards and is fully liable for all the purchases.  His banker, who has known him for years and who also knows my husband well (my husband has power of attorney for his father's accounts and handled his recent closing) said gee, she meant to call us about the money my father-in-law was spending, but she had misplaced my husband's card.  The same banker arranged for the checks for the Corvette and the Audi knowing the title was going to a third party. My father-in-law remembers very little of the purchases, but says when he does remember buying the woman anything, he thought it was just little trinkets.  He has been tested for dementia and comes through as perfectly normal.  We suspect he  may have been drugged before the shopping sprees.   While none of us live in the same area as he, he has 5 children, all of whom are in frequent, if not daily, contact with him.  This has happened so fast it makes my head spin.

Just a cautionary note - I don't know how this could have been avoided, but perhaps it could have been averted a bit earlier. 

Terrible to hear this.  There really people out there that are just indescribably bad human beings. 

I'd agree with other people that the bank/retirement home is where you are going to get your recovery from.  I also agree with you that to pursue it could be incredibly expensive.  There was a story a while back here.  It's the story of a woman who had her safe deposit box cleaned out by a casual acquiantance and the Police and Bank Response.  I don't have any updates but it may give you an idea of some of the perils and pitfalls of pursuing this.

I'd also work on the auto dealers that sold the cars.  It's a stretch but they have been getting a ton of heat for selling cars to seniors that can't drive.  The website that I've referred you to in the link is really good on this kind of story, they probably can't help you resolve it but they do get a lot of publicity (and have a writing style that is makes casualy readers want to get out the pitchforks and nooses for the perpetrators).

See example #3 in the attached.  Per your description, you may be able to show they were negligent and may be financially responsible to some extent because they did not do their jobs. 

SAR

That's brilliant.  Wow. 

[edit: you may want to put them in a little later to let the evasion angle play out]