MIAMI SHORES, Fla. — A man accused of exploiting an elderly woman has been transferred to Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center after being arrested in Broward County.
Online jail records show Lyne Bien-Aime, 55, was booked into TGK just before 1 p.m. Tuesday.
According to a press release from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Bien-Aime looted finances from a 71-year-old retired nurse who lived in Miami Shores with her disabled adult daughter.
Prosecutors said prior to her death in 2022, the nurse, Marie Bertrand, suffered a major health episode that left her with a cognitive impairment and need for around-the-clock care.
Prosecutors said the victim met Bien-Aime “through associations with the victim’s church” and he later “misrepresented himself as the victim’s nephew when dealing with local medical authorities.”
“Bien-Aime contacted the victim’s sister and family, residing in New York, falsely claiming to be a medical doctor and promising to oversee her care,“ the press release stated.
Authorities said Bien-Aime then isolated Bertrand and manipulated her for his own gain, including by having her sign a number of legal documents, giving him power of attorney over her, leading to him emptying various bank accounts containing her life savings and also fraudulently transferring her Miami Shores home into his name.
Prosecutors said Bien-Aime also secretly held the victim at his own home instead of allowing her to live out her final days at her residence.
According to prosecutors, Bertrand’s savings were meant to safeguard her daughter’s future after her own death.
Bertrand died on Dec. 16, 2022.
“I believe he killed my sister,” Bertrand’s brother, Vagner Valbrun, said of Bien-Aime. “He (has) to pay for what he did because my sister died.”
Prosecutors said the victim’s daughter, fortunately, was taken to New York by relatives during her mother’s health crisis and she has remained there with relatives after Bertrand’s death.
Bien-Aime has been charged with the following first-degree felonies:
- Exploitation of an elderly/disabled person in an amount over $50,000
- Grand theft from a person over 65 in an amount over $50,000
- Scheme to defraud in an amount over $50,000
He also faces one count of unlawful filing of false documents or records against real or personal property -- a third-degree felony.
As of Wednesday morning, Bien-Aime was being held at TGK on an $85,000 bond.
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