Cathy Areu, a former political analyst for Fox News, has been arrested and faces felony charges in south Florida that authorities say are related to crimes she committed against her own mother, including kidnapping and the theft of $224,000.
Areu, who in appearances on Fox News was touted as providing a liberal viewpoint, is also accused of twice forcing her 88-year-old mother into a nursing home against her will.
“Every incident of alleged elder exploitation or abuse touches our heart and never fails to shock us. It seems particularly harder to understand when the alleged perpetrator of the exploitation is a daughter, or a son or another blood relative,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement to media.
Areu, 51, is charged with kidnapping, exploitation of the elderly and organized scheme to defraud. She allegedly used falsified documents to take possession of her mother’s house, stole money from her mother’s bank accounts and made purchases on a credit card she fraudulently opened in her mother’s name.
Prosecutors said an investigation over Areu’s activities was started in 2019 after reports they received that documents had been filed concerning her mother’s house. The files featured signatures of her mother, which she denied were hers. Areu used a trip to Mexico to evade questioning and arrest since June, Florida state attorneys said. On Friday, Areu was being held at the county jail without bond.
The Associated Press reported Areu sued Fox News and hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity in 2020, alleging sexual harassment. The lawsuit was dismissed by a court the next year.
Fox News removed her online bio from its website Friday after her arrest was widely reported. According to the AP, Areu’s Fox News profile had said she was a former political editor for the Washington Post Magazine from 2001 to 2012, and in 2001 founded the Catalina magazine. She also hosted a podcast called the “Liberal Sherpa.”
