HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE BILL 146

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017

AN ACT

RELATING TO PROTECTION OF VULNERABLE ELDERS; ENACTING THE PROTECTION AGAINST FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION OF VULNERABLE ELDERS ACT; PROVIDING FOR CRIMINAL PENALTIES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. A new section of the Criminal Code is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] SHORT TITLE.--This act may be cited as the "Protection Against Financial Exploitation of Vulnerable Elders Act"."

     SECTION 2. A new section of the Criminal Code is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Protection Against Financial Exploitation of Vulnerable Elders Act:

          A. "exploitation" means an unjust or improper use of a vulnerable elder's money or property for another person's profit or advantage, pecuniary or otherwise; and

          B. "vulnerable elder" means a person who has attained the age of sixty-five years and who, due to aging, lacks the ability to care for or protect that person's own self from exploitation." 

     SECTION 3. A new section of the Criminal Code is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION OF A VULNERABLE ELDER--PENALTIES.--

          A. Financial exploitation of a vulnerable elder consists of:

                (1) knowingly and willfully obtaining or using the funds, assets or property of a vulnerable elder with the intent to defraud the elder; or

                (2) knowingly and willfully making an inter vivos transfer with the intent to defraud the vulnerable elder, whether in a single transaction or multiple transactions, of money or property belonging to a vulnerable elder to a person who is not related to the vulnerable elder if the vulnerable elder does not receive a substantially equivalent financial value in funds, goods or services. Any transfer of money or property valued in excess of five hundred dollars ($500) from a vulnerable elder to a person who is not related to the vulnerable elder and whom the vulnerable elder has known for less than two years and for which the vulnerable elder does not receive the substantially equivalent financial value in funds, goods or services shall be prima facie evidence that the transfer was the result of financial exploitation. For the purposes of this paragraph, a person who is not related to a vulnerable elder means a person who is not the spouse of a vulnerable elder or is not, by blood, marriage or legal adoption, a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, child, grandchild, great-grandchild, brother, sister, niece, nephew, aunt or uncle of a vulnerable elder.

          B. A person who commits financial exploitation of a vulnerable elder as provided in Subsection A of this section is guilty of a:

                (1) petty misdemeanor if the value of money or property is two hundred fifty dollars ($250) or less and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Subsection B of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978;

                (2) misdemeanor if the value of money or property is over two hundred fifty dollars ($250) but not more than five hundred dollars ($500) and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Subsection A of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978;

                (3) fourth degree felony if the value of money or property is over five hundred dollars ($500) but not more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978;

                (4) third degree felony if the value of money or property is over two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) but not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978; and

                (5) second degree felony if the value of money or property is over twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced pursuant to the provisions of Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978."

     SECTION 4. APPLICABILITY.--The provisions of this act shall not be construed to preclude the applicability of any other provision of the civil or criminal law of this state or a local government of this state that currently applies, or may in the future apply, to any transaction that violates the cited provisions of this act.

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