Latest news with #financialabuse
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Kim Zolciak's daughter Ariana claims her mom and stepdad Kroy Biermann spent all her money
daughter Ariana Biermann has claimed her mother and stepfather Kroy Biermann have spent all of her hard-earned money. The influencer, 23, made the claim on the first episode of her new Bravo reality TV show Next Gen NYC on Tuesday. She said she started making significant income from brand deals and sponsored social media posts aged as young as 14, but claimed her parents wiped it out. 'I was doing like three posts a week and you get paid astronomical to do a story or to do an Instagram post, and I made quite a bit of money,' she said. 'But, unfortunately, my parents took my money.' Since filing to end their nearly 12-year marriage in May 2023, Kim and Kroy have been embroiled in a nasty legal battle over their Georgia mansion, custody of their four minor children, and financial support—with Kroy previously accusing Kim of gambling away $1.5 million. But now Ariana is adding fuel to the fire, saying she discovered her money was 'gone two years ago.' She added: 'I don't even know how much money I made over the time period,' the reality star admitted. 'Nobody was honest, there was no transparency and I have no idea where it actually went.' She added that she 'can't say exactly' what her parents spent it on. Ariana also revealed the ongoing family drama has taken a toll on her relationship with boyfriend Hudson McLeroy, especially when when her mom reaches out for financial help. She admitted in a confessional: 'Sometimes I don't tell Hudson when she's asking me for something because she' going through this crazy divorce and living with four kids. 'I get it and I never want money to destroy the relationship with my family.' Money woes have loomed large over Kim and Kroy's unraveling marriage. After filing for divorce, Kroy accused the reality TV star of a severe gambling problem that he claimed left their family in financial ruin. According to court filings, he alleged Kim blew through more than $600,000 on luxury shopping sprees over a seven-year span, frequenting high-end retailers like Neiman Marcus, Chanel, and Saks. The financial pressure only escalated when their Georgia mansion—once listed at a far higher price—lingered on the market for over 18 months. In February, the troubled property finally sold, but at a steep $3 million discount, following months of foreclosure threats. Ariana's claim comes almost a week after Kim faced fresh backlash after promoting an online casino — despite ongoing claims that her gambling habit helped tank her family's finances. The accusations about Kim's gambling losses were seen in a 2023 Milton Police Department bodycam video after officers responded to the home after Kim reported a domestic dispute. During the police visit, Kroy told police that the Don't Be Tardy alum 'has decimated everything' with her penchant for gambling; he added that some of her gaming activity was illegal. Zolciak and Biermann's four kids - Kroy Jr., 15, Kash, 14, and twins Kane and Kaia, 12 - were at home at the time of the altercation. (Biermann had adopted Zolciak's older children from previous relationships - Brielle, 28, and Ariana - when they were minors in the couple's earlier years.) Ariana's bombshell financial claim also comes after she finally received her sentencing following her 2022 DUI arrest. The media personality was involved in a 'minor fender bender' at the time - but denied that she had been drinking leading up to the incident. However, she admitted to using a marijuana vape the night before. A hearing recently took place on May 23 amid her criminal case and she entered a plea deal - with charges officially being dropped, according to InTouch Weekly, which was the first to report the news. She pleaded guilty to both reckless driving as well as possession and use of a drug-related object. However, the star will have to serve 24 months on probation and if she commits any violations, Ariana could possibly serve time in jail.
News.com.au
03-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘End up homeless': Child support weaponised against single mums
Australian child support frameworks are in urgent need of reform as a new report reveals the number of parents, especially women, financially abused through the system. The Commonwealth ombudsman into the 'weaponisation' of the child support program has revealed the dark underbelly of the financial abuse rife throughout the system, with more than 153,000 parents having a combined $1.9bn in unpaid child support. Parents lying about their income, deliberately reducing their earnings, lying about how much they care for the children, or just straight up refusing to pay have all been identified as evidence the system is failing families, especially women and children. 'The legislation needs reform to address systemic problems and help Services Australia ensure children are not deprived of the financial support they need,' Commonwealth Ombudsman Iain Anderson said. In a survey of more than 500 separated mothers, four in five said their former partner had used the program to commit financial abuse. The system is meant to support more than 1.2 million separated parents and 1.1 million affected children. About 84 per cent of parents receiving child support payments to be women. The report condemned Services Australia as being 'unfair and unreasonable' by failing to use its powers to enforce payments. 'This passive approach is unfair,' the report said. 'It allows some paying parents to manipulate the system to avoid their financial responsibility in raising their children, largely without consequences.' It is reported that the Services Australia lacked the frameworks to proactively respond to cases of abuse. 'I am a single mum trying to look after my children. One has a disability. Services Australia is taking $500 from me a week and I simply cannot afford this,' one woman wrote in a complaint to the Ombudsman. 'My rent alone is $580. I am going to end up homeless with my kids and Services Australia is not understanding at all.' Under the current system, when a child support payer lodges their tax return, the government assumes any outstanding child support has been paid, which raises an overpayment of the Family Tax Benefit Part A. Services Australia then recovers the 'overpaid' FTB A, whether or not the child support has actually been paid. 'This kind of financial abuse is something our member centres see all the time, so we are very pleased to have it recognised in this morning's report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman,' Economic Justice Australia chief executive Kate Allingham said. 'However, what the scope of this report makes clear is that there is something broken at the heart of the social security system. 'It's mind-blowing that it is so easy for a perpetrator to inflict such profound financial harm on another individual; that they are so easily able to create a debt for a former partner which Services Australia is then required to pursue.' The ombudsman made eight recommendations to Services Australia, including developing a publicly available strategy on addressing financial abuse through child support, more effectively enforcing payments, and training staff to better understand financial abuse. All recommendations were approved. 'We thank the Ombudsman for the thorough investigation into this important issue. Financial abuse and all forms of family and domestic violence are serious and damaging issues affecting many of our customers,' a Services Australia spokesman said. 'Services Australia accepts all eight recommendations, and work has already begun to implement these fully. 'We'll implement many of the recommendations by December 2025 and the remainder by June 2026. 'We know financial abuse is a complex issue, and we're working closely with the Department of Social Services, the Australian Taxation Office, and the Office for Women to address this. 'While legislation limits some of the improvements we can make, we acknowledge there's work we can do within the existing policy to better support parents who are child Support customers and their children.' The Department of Social Services also accepted all conditions, except for introducing a Bill to amend the law to address legal limitations for the current system outlined in the report. 'Today's Ombudsman's report confirms child support is being weaponised against single mothers and that government systems have failed to recognise or respond to this. These failures mean the systems themselves have enabled financial abuse,' Single Mother Families Australia chief executive Teresa Edwards said, 'The concerns we have raised on behalf of single mothers over many years have been vindicated.'
ABC News
02-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Parents able to 'manipulate' child support system free of consequences: ombudsman report
Australia's child support system has been weaponised for financial abuse that is "amplified" by Services Australia, according to a Commonwealth Ombudsman's investigation. That abuse included parents not making payments, not filing tax returns to disguise income, lying to reduce income and being abusive or violent to stop a parent seeking help. This abuse was amplified by a tax system that calculated income assuming all support payments were made — even if they weren't — and by procedures at Services Australia that could disclose sensitive information to ex-partners, the report found. "This is really important because child support is all about children — vulnerable children — who need to be financially supported while they're growing up," Ombudsman Iain Anderson said. In Australia more than 1.2 million separated parents have an arrangement that sees one parent pay the other to assist with the costs of raising an estimated one million children. Services Australia is responsible for about half of those arrangements through the Child Support program, with the rest in what is called Private Collect, where one parent directly pays the other. The Ombudsman's report, released exclusively to ABC News, concluded that Services Australia was acting in an "unfair and unreasonable manner" in not using available powers to stop widespread financial abuse. "This passive approach is unfair. It allows some paying parents to manipulate the system to avoid their financial responsibility in raising their children, largely without consequences," the report concluded. The amount of money some parents are avoiding paying is big. Mr Anderson said 153,000 parents had a combined $1.9 billion in outstanding child support debts in December last year. The report showed outstanding payments disproportionately impacted mothers — with 84 per cent of those receiving payments being female. The Ombudsman's report made eight recommendations, including having Services Australia track financial abuse and use its enforcement powers to claw back the $1.9 billion in unpaid child support. Current Services Australia processes can require a parent to tell their non-paying ex-partner their location or workplace, which can be abused by non-paying parents and re-traumatise parents who have experienced domestic violence, the Ombudsman said. "They have and go through these very burdensome processes, so that in itself can exacerbate previous abuse," Mr Anderson said. "We've certainly had complainants who said to them that this made them feel very unsafe and they in fact withdrew from processes and rather than seeking to pursue unpaid child support." Do you have a story to share? Email Jane (not her real name), a single mother of three from Canberra, said she has gone through experiences like that. "That's the way I felt and again the scrutiny was on myself and what I had submitted. The focus was not on the needs of the children." Jane said she almost walked away from seeking extra support for her youngest child, who has significant medical needs, because the demands for documentation were so onerous. "The forgotten party in all of this is actually the children. I think that's a really important point," she said. The Ombudsman's report called for a legislative fix to force Services Australia to make the system fairer. Currently, Services Australia is required to assume all child support has been paid when assessing eligibility for tax concessions for parents like Family Tax Benefit A. This can result in parents having a tax debt for child support they are owed but did not receive, a process the Ombudsman said "absolutely" victimised parents. "This is unfair and places those parents at a double disadvantage — in effect amplifying the impact of the financial abuse they are suffering through the actions of their former partner," the report concluded. Services Australia currently has a restriction, allowing it to collect just three months of unpaid child support if a parent changed from private collection to the government system. The report recommended legislation that would also lift that restriction. Legislative fixes were also required to allow debts to be recovered from bank accounts held in joint names, allow better information sharing between agencies and track domestic violence, the report said. In a statement, a Services Australia spokesperson said it fully accepted the recommendations and would be working to implement them between December 2025 and June 2026. "Financial abuse and all forms of family and domestic violence are serious and damaging issues affecting many of our customers," the spokesperson said. "While legislation limits some of the improvements we can make, we acknowledge there's work we can do within the existing policy to better support parents who are Child Support customers and their children." In a statement on behalf of the Social Services and Government Services ministers Tanya Plibersek and Katy Gallagher, a spokesperson acknowledged child support was being used to "exploit and traumatise women" and that the government was acting. "We are currently undertaking a number of reviews across the Child Support Scheme, looking closely at compliance, with a focus on income accuracy, collection and enforcement," the spokesperson said. "This work will be finalised in the coming months and will help inform future reforms to ensure that the Child Support Scheme cannot be misused as a vehicle for ongoing financial control or abuse after separation." Terese Edwards, CEO of Single Mother Families Australia, has long lobbied for change and said several inquiries over the decades have identified similar flaws. "The child support system has been a problem for decades. That's witnessed in the $1.9 billion debt owed to children," Ms Edwards said. The organisation said it was optimistic there was growing momentum for major changes to child support following a recent inquiry into the Australian Tax Office and a parliamentary one into financial abuse. "The [payment] levels are so unrealistically low and unreliable, to the point that banking institutions don't use that income when they're looking at income coming in," Ms Edwards said. "Also, real estate agencies don't take it into account when they're looking at rental properties."
Telegraph
23-05-2025
- Telegraph
‘My husband spent £60k on his secret fiancé – then was sectioned'
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our Consumer Champion is available to help. For how to contact her click here. Dear Katie, Just before Christmas last year, I suspected that something untoward was going on with my husband. He kept going out for drives in his car at strange times, and I found one or two Apple gift cards in his pocket, which I initially thought nothing of. But then, one day, I decided to open his glove compartment. To my horror, about 60 Apple gift cards fell out. I said nothing, but did a bit more snooping and discovered a series of strange cash withdrawals totalling around £30,000 from his Nationwide current account. I didn't confront him about it, as I was scared about his reaction, but I confided in my adult children. Having discovered the level of withdrawals from his account, I went down to his local branch of Nationwide to report this. I explained to them that there was unusual activity on his account in the form of daily ATM withdrawals of £500 cash, and asked them to look into the Apple gift cards. However, I was told that as he was making the withdrawals from ATMs, it was none of their concern. I was told that since it was his account, he would need to come in himself. A few days, later my children confronted him about it all. He told them that he had been having an affair with a woman he met online. I already knew he liked to go on Facebook and had been commenting underneath various celebrities' posts – including Agnetha from Abba, Susannah Reid and Sandra Bullock. He seemed to believe that they were personally responding to him, which spurred him on to leave more comments. But in January 2024, he received a response to one of his comments from a woman called Natasha, who then began messaging him on a one to one basis. They were chatting on WhatsApp and developed some sort of relationship. He began buying Amazon gift cards and giving them to her – spending £30,000 on these in addition to the Apple gift cards. She said she was going to leave him her entire inheritance and, upsettingly, in the messages she referred to him as her fiance. My husband was in such a state after this conversation that my children took him to hospital and he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. There he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, which is a rare form of the disease impacting personality, behaviour, language and speech. Unlike other types of dementia, memory loss and concentration problems are less prominent in its early stages, hence why we had not realised there was anything seriously wrong. Once my husband was on the hospital ward, the doctor wrote to Nationwide advising them of the scam and that he was sectioned. Since then, Nationwide seems to have taken the situation seriously and has opened a case with its Financial Crime Department. Bizarrely, they wrote directly to my husband at his home address, even though he is not there. Despite attempts by myself and his children with numerous phone calls and visits to the branch, we have been unable to get Nationwide to understand the extent of the situation. My husband is still sectioned, and due to his rapidly advancing illness, is now unable to communicate verbally. Nationwide has now written to my husband telling him that as he has not responded, they will be closing his account on May 13. Unbelievably, it asked him to visit his local branch with a valid ID, which obviously he cannot do. To date, they have frozen his account but direct debits are still being paid, namely money to run his house and car insurance. If Nationwide closes the account, all these important payments will not be made and with no power of attorney in place, we have no means of accessing money to ensure these payments are met. This has been and continues to be an extremely upsetting situation for our family to find my husband incapacitated so quickly. This upset has been exacerbated by the attitude of Nationwide in offering no assistance at all. – Anon Dear reader, After living what you would have described as a normal married life for so many years, the rug was suddenly pulled out from under your feet just before Christmas last year when you discovered your husband's 'affair'. In an almost unbelievable turn of events, he was then sectioned and diagnosed with a rare form of dementia, which has caused his mental state to rapidly deteriorate to the point where he can no longer speak. He is now receiving one to one care in a home and you say he will never be able to leave due to the degenerative nature of his condition. After uncovering his horrible secret, I imagine you have been left questioning the integrity of the man you thought you knew, with no hope of an explanation. But you have also had to come to terms with the fact that you have lost him forever because he is never coming back from this seemingly sudden illness. I'm so very sorry for your loss and all that you have endured over the past few months. This has felt like a dreadfully sad end to what was otherwise a long and happy life together. I think what's highly likely in retrospect is that your husband's frontotemporal dementia had already kicked in back when he started talking to 'Natasha' on Facebook in January last year. You say he has always been loyal in the past, and all this was extremely out of character, which I totally believe. It is the case that sufferers of frontotemporal dementia can be more vulnerable to scams due to changes in their judgement and decision-making abilities. The disease can also affect a person's ability to manage money and assess risk, perhaps explaining why he was suddenly willing to spend £60,000 on a woman he had never met in person, despite previously having a track record of being faithful and financially prudent. I want to be clear that as an outsider looking in I don't see this episode as an affair at all. It was a cold hard romance scam in which this woman, who was likely part of a criminal enterprise, preyed on your husband at the very moment when he happened to be losing capacity. People like her are highly trained in manipulation, and can often succeed in casting a spell over people with no known mental issues. So I'm afraid that once in her clutches, with his state of mind, he stood little chance of escaping. Since you and your husband have always had separate bank accounts, and you did not set up a lasting power of attorney for each other in case one of you lost capacity, dealing with the aftermath of the scam has been horrendously difficult. You say Nationwide has been extremely unhelpful, which I was sorry to hear, but I'm afraid that it is bound by regulations which state that since you are not named on the account it cannot deal with you. I note that you said your husband did receive a visit from social services last year in relation to a financial matter, however, you were under the impression they were simply warning him about the messages he believed he was sending to the real Sandra Bullock. In fact, I believe this may have actually been triggered by Nationwide following all the unusual activity on his account, as under banking protocols, if it suspects someone is being preyed on and may be losing capacity, then it is able to involve the police/social services. However, social services cleared him as being okay, as did his GP two months before he was sectioned, you say. Since your husband has lost capacity, he cannot consent for me to discuss his account with Nationwide, which has made investigating his case somewhat tricky. Yet although it has been unable to discuss his account in any detail, I was pleased when Nationwide did confirm that his accounts will be safeguarded and will remain open to allow you to make the appropriate Court of Protection application. This is now underway, and I have also received confirmation that once it is in place, or in the event of his death (which you have been warned by doctors may not be too far off), we can retrospectively make a claim for a refund under the Contingent Reimbursement Model, which delivers refunds for scams. Given the situation, I think your husband stands a good chance of getting his money back. Although it won't undo the terrible trauma you've endured in recent months, I know the return of his £60,000 would help, so I'd like to assist you through the process when we're able to proceed. I truly wish you all the best. A Nationwide spokesman said: 'We can't provide customer information on this case (without authority to do so). However, our staff are trained to spot vulnerability indicators and refer customers to our specialist support team, who will review complex cases like this with the utmost care. 'We work closely with local police and refer to social services as appropriate based on the facts of the case. We review all cases on an individual basis to help support victims through really difficult periods.'
BBC News
21-05-2025
- BBC News
Nottingham: Trio took more than £400,000 off vulnerable siblings
A family of fraudsters who "cynically abused" their position of trust to con a vulnerable brother and sister out of hundreds of thousands of pounds have been Police said husband and wife Ahmed and Nadia Shah, as well as Nadia's daughter Aysha Shah, tricked a woman aged in her 80s into handing over her bank card then targeted her brother in his 70s after he was hospitalised. The fraudsters received £411,836.98 in total from the two victims, who have died since, police trio were jailed at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday after entering guilty pleas. DC Stephanie Wood said the Shah family's behaviour was "cruel" and added the force takes fraud and financial abuse "extremely seriously". In 2014, Aysha Shah, 28, of Normanton Road, Derby, began working for a care agency in Nottingham which provided care for one of the victims at her home in Wollaton, police said. Police said the victim was "wealthy but frail", with her brother being the only member of her family she was in contact introduced the woman to Ahmed and Nadia Shah, of Cockington Road, Nottingham, and the family gradually took over her care and finances, the force 2018 to 2019, police said large amounts of cash began to be withdrawn from the woman's bank accounts, with up to £500 taken out on successive said when the woman's brother had a fall and was admitted to hospital in May 2019, the trio saw a further and Ahmed forged a will in the man's name, including a forged signature and an inked thumbprint, making themselves the executors and Aysha a beneficiary of it, the force revealed the document was only created a week before the man died and not prior to his fall as it said detectives believed the thumbprint was added because the Shahs were concerned the signature would be challenged – and this can only have been added after his death when they visited his body at the funeral man had two properties and additional investments worth more than £950,000. None went to his sister and instead ended up in the Shah family's bank used the funds to buy items and travelled to Pakistan where some of it was withdrawn in cash, police said. 'Cruel' Ahmed Shah, aged 47, was jailed for six years after admitting making a false will and two counts of Shah, aged 59, was jailed for six years after admitting making a false will and fraud by false Shah, 28, of Normanton Road, Derby, was jailed for one year and seven months after pleading guilty to acquiring criminal Wood said: "Both our victims were ideal targets to be exploited and that is exactly what the Shah family did."The Shahs pretended to be friends of the woman while systematically stripping away her life savings and going on to target her brother."Their behaviour was cruel, betraying the trust of the first victim and taking advantage of the second victim's admission to hospital and death."
