Following a lengthy investigation, a woman is facing trial for swindling an elderly Hazel Park man after police say she formed a relationship with him and secretly got access to his banking information.
Kristin D. Vian, 42, was ordered to stand trial this week after a preliminary examination in Hazel Park 43rd District Court.
Vian is charged with larceny over $20,000, a 10-year felony carrying a fine of up to $15,000.
Hazel Park Police Chief Brian Buchholz said the suspect formed a friendship with the Hazel Park man, 73, in the summer of 2021 after meeting him at a gas station in Detroit.
“During their friendship she got his banking information and was able to fraudulently have herself made a delegate to his banking account,” Buchholz said. “And over the course of a year or more she was able to swindle him out of more than $113,000.”
Police said the suspect is a longtime drug user.
Vian was able to get access to Hazel Park man’s records and opened up a checking account using his information.
“She also received a debit card and was able to withdraw money from the victim’s account,” Buchholz said.
About a year after he met Vian, the man reached out to his son when he found his banking account funds dwindling, police said.
The man and his son knew there was no way he should have been short on money, Buchholz said, and they began examining the man’s bank accounts.
“That’s when they discovered the theft and were able to tie it to the suspect,” Buchholz said.
Police also found Vian was listed as a delegate on the senior citizen’s bank accounts, which the man had not authorized.
Money had been withdrawn from the man’s account in ways that were different from his own withdrawals and Vian is accused of using the money to pay off her ATM credit card balances.
Formerly an Auburn Hills resident, Vian lived mostly at hotels or motels during the period of her relationship with the Hazel Park man, who is a veteran retired from the military, police said.
Police said he continued to have contact with the suspect.
At one point in 2021 he was in the hospital for a surgery she was supposed to take care of his house for him while he was away.
“She was at his house at different times for different reasons,” Buchholz said.
After discovering large sums of money were taken from his bank accounts, he filed a report with Hazel Park police in July 2022.
Police said they investigated the case, a complicated process, and Oakland County prosecutors charged the suspect earlier this year.
Vian was arraigned in Hazel Park District Court on Feb. 24 and jailed on a $50,000 cash bond.
She remains in the Oakland County Jail. Her record there shows she is also being held for two probation violations, possession of a small amount of drugs, and $12,000 cash bond for damage to property from a case in Oak Park 45th District Court.
Vian is scheduled to be arraigned for trial on the Hazel Park larceny charge at 8:30 a.m. April 4 before Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Martha Anderson.