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In death, couple's money flowed
By ROBERT KING © St. Petersburg Times, published October 6, 2000 SPRING HILL -- The fact that Edward and Katty Litvins were dead didn't seem to stop the flow of their check writing. Litvins died in May 1999, and his wife died three months later. But for another six months, checks bearing Mrs. Litvins' signature kept draining money from their accounts. And these weren't old checks. They were freshly written. In all, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office thinks nearly $200,000 disappeared from the Litvinses' accounts -- almost all of it after their deaths. And it wasn't because the Litvinses were banking from the grave. Instead, authorities say a 77-year-old woman who had handled some the couple's finances forged checks and cash transfers for months after the two were dead. One check was forged the day Mrs. Litvins died. Another for $180,000 moved four days later. Anastasia Panzak, of 10157 Eustace Road in Spring Hill, was arrested Wednesday and is accused of organized fraud. She was released on $10,000 bail. The Sheriff's Office says Panzak used forged signatures to remove money from an account to which the Litvinses had exclusive access. According to detectives, she put the money into a joint account she shared with the Litvinses. Reached by phone Thursday, Panzak first asked a St. Petersburg Times reporter how much it would cost to keep the story of her arrest out of the newspaper. But she still answered several questions about the case. Panzak said she had shared one of the bank accounts with the Litvinses for 10 years and had been writing checks for them for much of that time. When the couple died last year, she said she handled their bills and burial expenses. Panzak also said that Litvinses had promised to pay her for the help she provided them. But the couple never paid her and, she said, they never left a will. Panzak said she had not spent the money, and she blamed the pain medicine she was taking for her confusion. "I don't know what I was doing," she said. The Litvinses were New Jersey natives, according to their obituaries published last year in the Times. Litvins, 77, was a retired embalmer and Army veteran who had lived in Florida for 21 years. Mrs. Litvins, 87, had been a department store salesclerk who lived in Florida for 22 years. Sheriff's Lt. Joe Paez said a lawyer who recently represented Panzak indicated she had returned some of the money, but the Sheriff's Office couldn't independently confirm that. Attempts by the Times to reach the Litvinses' surviving children were unsuccessful. Paez said authorities were tipped off to the alleged fraud by a lawyer hired by the Litvinses' children to look into the management of the estate. "Obviously the lady knew what she was doing," Paez said. "It is a little surprising to see someone at that age doing this, but it's not unheard of."
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From today's Hernando Times |
