Schuette expands Criminal Division, new team focuses on kids and seniors

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Tuesday announced that he is expanding his Criminal Division, creating the Child, Elder and Family Financial Crimes Division.

As technology expands so do the avenues for financial crime. The creation of this innovative unit allows the assistant attorneys general working on prosecuting these crimes to evolve as well, allowing them to better protect Michigan residents.

“Michigan’s children and seniors are two of Michigan’s most vulnerable populations,” said Schuette. “When it comes to financial crimes, scam artists are always coming up with new tactics to complete their crime. By creating a specific unit we are evolving to better handle the everchanging field of financial crime.“

Part of Schuette’s Criminal Division, the Child, Elder and Family Financial Crimes Division will be comprised of existing assistant attorneys general from the Child Support and Corporate Oversight Divisions, each with backgrounds in this type of action. The unit will focus on criminal child support cases as well as elder financial criminal matters that are currently handled in the Corporate Oversight Division.

The Elder Financial Crimes Unit, which is now housed in this new division, was created in February 2018 and uses existing staff and resources from the Corporate Oversight Division-Criminal, the Criminal Division, the Healthcare, Education and Family Services Division and the Healthcare Fraud Division to assist law enforcement and county prosecutors in investigating and prosecuting financial crimes targeting elder or vulnerable adults.