Bill Inspired by Navy Federal Member Who Lost $3.6 Million Passes Va. Legislature

A bill, driven in part after a former elderly member of the $170 billion Navy Federal Credit Union who lost more than $3.6 million in an international scam, was passed by the Virginia General Assembly to prevent the financial exploitation of senior citizens and other vulnerable adults.

HB 692 was introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates in January by Delegate Michelle Maldonado (D-Manassas, Va.), unanimously passed the Virginia State Senate on Feb. 22 and unanimously passed the Virginia House of Delegates on Feb. 23. The bill now goes to Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin for his signature.

The bill allows an elderly or vulnerable adult to submit and periodically update a list of trusted persons to a credit union or bank and permits the financial institutions to contact those trusted persons if financial exploitation of an elderly or vulnerable adult is suspected. Additionally, the bill also permits a financial institution to conduct training for staff on how to identify financial exploitation and report it internally and to report it to the designated trusted contacts and to other authorities, including the FBI.

The bill also directs the Bureau of Financial Institutions of the State Corporation Commission to develop and publish guidelines for such training by Jan. 1, 2026. What’s more, the bill provides that no financial institution staff that have received training will be held liable in any civil or administrative proceeding for disclosing the suspected financial exploitation of an elderly or vulnerable adult based on the bill’s provisions if that disclosure was made in good faith and with reasonable care. The bill provides that no financial institution that has provided training will be held liable for any such disclosure by financial institution staff.

“I am grateful for the collaboration with our advocacy groups, families and financial institutions that helped us bring this important piece of legislation forward to better protect our seniors and vulnerable persons across Virginia,” Maldonado said in a prepared statement.

One of those advocates was Janine Williamson, who filed a negligence lawsuit alleging that Navy Federal and Wells Fargo failed to protect her uncle, U.S. Navy Commander Larry W. Cook, who sent 75 ­international wire transfers totaling $3,608,700 to unknown persons at two banks in Thailand. He began the wire transfers on Oct. 6, 2020, and they ended on April 20, 2021, the day before his death at the age of 76. Cook was a highly decorated veteran and a member of Navy Federal since the early 1970s.

The lawsuit was dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge last year because Virginia’s Uniform Commercial Code does not impose an obligation on the credit union to have shielded Cook from the criminal conduct of third-party scammers or to have refused to process the transactions, which he directed the credit union to initiate, merely because it had a concern the circumstances were suspicious.

Williamson is appealing the ruling that is now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Virginia.

Commander Cook’s case attracted local and national news headlines last year.

Williamson testified in front of the Virginia Senate Commerce and Labor Committee last month.

“I am pleased and encouraged that Delegate Maldonado and Virginia lawmakers are leading the country with powerful, protective actions to prevent financial exploitation of aging and vulnerable populations,” Williamson said. “HB 692 would have stopped the financial exploitation of my uncle Larry and allowed our family to get him needed physical and mental help. A trusted contact’s information, much like a medical ‘emergency contact,’ would have enabled his financial institutions to reach us quickly with a phone call, email or letter.”

Williamson said she also filed the lawsuit hoping it will raise awareness about the growing problem of elder financial exploitation, and that lawmakers and regulators will close loopholes around wire fraud to protect seniors.

The American Association of Retired Persons reported last June that older Americans lose an estimated $28.3 billion annually to elder financial exploitation and much of it is never reported to authorities.

READ MORE: The Financial Exploitation of the Elderly and Vulnerable Adults Bill.