There’s nothing more shameful than scamming innocent seniors out of their hard earned pennies and nickels.

One California insurance agent did just that, and now he’s paying big time.

John Paul Slawinski has just been charged with three counts of embezzlement from an elderly, two counts of burglary and one count of tax evasion.

From 2009-2013, Slawinski swindled millions of dollars worth of savings out of 13 elderly individuals, convincing them that their annuities would see growth once in his clutches.

Typically, annuities sold to major corporations are only charged with a small fee of around 2%.

With Slawinski’s scheme, the poor seniors technically met a 100% service charge.

In fact, the annuities scam ultimately cost many of the seniors their entire life savings.

In addition to his charges, Slawinski was ordered to pay $3.4 million to the seniors in restitution.

The case was first brought to authorities’ attention after receiving reports about John’s mishandling of the seniors’ annuities.

In order to get them to shell over the money, Slawinski told the seniors that their annuities would increase if he handled them. In turn, the elderly citizens wrote him personal checks.

The shameless swindler would then deposit them directly into his bank account.

Then, Slawinski would destroy the evidence and create fake documents that claimed to show the progress of his clients’ annuities.

It is hard to believe that people would resort to such deceiving and dastardly deeds.

This disturbing fraud case just goes to show that annuity fraud is more common than one would think.

To avoid being the victim of annuity, seek out reputable, and well-respected financial planners who have adequate certification. Consumer Affairs recommends seeking financial planners via The Financial Planning Association’s virtual database that matches you with planners in your community.