Accused senior scammer open for business

FRESNO, Calif (KFSN) -- Action News has uncovered new details from the investigation into an alleged scam stealing money from seniors.

Greg Steen walked out of court Tuesday with a serious look on his face and not much to say.

"Good morning," he said to an Action News crew.

The 53-year-old stands accused of 38 counts of swindling the senior citizens he promised to protect. Investigators told us Monday he's the ringleader of a group that stole or caused losses of more than $1 million. And in a search warrant Action News dug up, they detail exactly how.

In one case, Steen is accused of taking more than $50,000 from the estate of a dead woman whose trust he was hired to create. In others, he's accused of writing annuities for elderly people. But at the time, he wasn't licensed to do it because of a large IRS lien. Investigators say he worked with other agents to use their licenses. Lisa Bennett was one of the agents, but her attorney tells me Bennett didn't do anything with Steen after he lost his license.

"A review of the documents which I will provide to the prosecutor show that Lisa is completely innocent in this case," said defense attorney Jeff Hammerschmidt.

Investigators say Steen, Bennett, Patty Ramirez, and Sara Vann all took $173,000 in profits from the fraudulent annuities. More than $125,000 of that went to Steen.

"Many of the events that are alleged against other defendants occurred after Lisa left employment with Greg Steen and she didn't even really know what they were doing," Hammerschmidt said.

Most of the transactions mentioned in the warrant did occur after Bennett's departure. Investigators say Steen committed embezzlement, grand theft and ID theft between March 2010 and August 2012. But two families told Action News Tuesday their elderly relative worked with Steen earlier this year, after his insurance license was also yanked. And we found his office open for business Tuesday, although it seemed empty of clients.