Elder fraud

With barely 20% of court-ordered restitution being paid in South Dakota, some experts wonder if requiring criminals to pay victims money they do not have is doing more harm than good for both sides of the equation.

More than half of elder exploitation cases nationally are perpetrated by family members, neighbors or home-care providers. In a South Dakota case, a grandson stole $187,000 from his grandfather.

South Dakota's aging population is increasingly at risk for financial exploitation, in some cases even by family members. The state has one of the nation's only statewide prosecutorial teams focused solely on financial crimes against the elderly and in just two years nearly 800 complaints have been investigated.