Jane's papa passed away testate, leaving his home, three rental properties and two bank accounts to her.  She estimated his "estate was worth millions."

Unfortunately, papa had mortgages and equity loans on each property (he had intended to to "fix them up").  The loans were in default and the mortgages were  pending auction.  One bank account had been closed years ago.

Once she became the executor, Jane was required to evict the tenants who would not move and sell each property.  After the full administration of the Estate, her total distribution was below a quarter million.  

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The beneficiary of a Last Will & Testament receives what the testator actually owned at the time of death minus funeral costs, administrative expenses and debts.  See Surrogate's Court Procedure Act section 1811.

Twenty-five year old Seth passed away in a car accident and his father Fred filed a petition to become the Administrator of Seth's estate in Surrogate's Court.

The processing of the petition was delayed because Fred, who raised his two sons as a single parent, did not know the whereabouts of their mother Tina (who walked out on her family twenty years ago).

To complete the petition for Letters of Administration, Fred was required to list Tina as a fifty (50%) percent distributee of Seth's estate and request to dispense with service of process as her whereabouts were unknown (see Surrogate's Court Procedure Act section 1003.4). 

After collecting the estate assets (and seven months after the Letters of Administration were issued by the Surrogate's Court), Fred filed a Voluntary Judicial Accounting seeking settlement of his account as Administrator.  His application also sought the disqualification of Tina as a distributee based on abandonment and failure to provide for Seth when he was under the age of Twenty-one. 

The Surrogate's Court appointed a Guardian ad Litem to protect Tina's rights in the accounting procedure but ultimately, Tina was disqualified pursuant to EPTL section 4-1.4 and Fred was decreed the sole distributee of Seth's estate.

Jim died after a brief illness, leaving bank accounts and real property out-of-state.  Jane, his niece, told the funeral director she was his daughter.  As a result of this misrepresentation, the death certificate listed Jane as Jim's daughter.

Jane used the death certificate to file for Letters of Administration with the Surrogate's Court and forged various documents (with the help of her friend and a stolen notary public stamp).

A few month's later when Jim's elderly father Joef filed a petition for Letters of Administration as the surviving parent and sole distributee of the estate, it was discovered that his granddaughter Jane filed a false application, was appointed as Administrator and collected thousands of dollars from several of Jim's bank accounts.  Jane disappeared and is believed to have fled the country.

Joef filed a petition to revoke Jane's Letters of Administration, proving Jane's falsified documents and forged signatures.  The Surrogate's Court revoked the Letters of Administration issued to Jane and appointed Joef as Admininstrator d.b.n. 

Joef contacted the District Attorney's Office to begin a criminal investigation but will eventually file Surrogate's Court Turnover Proceedings against Jane (see Surrogate's Court Procedure Act section 2103 and Surrogate's Court Procedure Act section 2104)  to begin the process of obtaining a Judgment against Jane (should she ever return to the United States).