California lawmakers created the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau to
monitor self-dealing in the industry. Twenty years later, the bureau’s
inaction in one case shows how conflicts of interest can continue for
years with little consequence.
by Byrhonda Lyons
It was a successful year for Angelique Friend. The entrepreneur was at the pinnacle of her profession in Ventura County. State records show she was overseeing $20 million of her clients’ assets and directing a sizable chunk of that money back into her own household.
As the 2022 holiday season approached, Friend celebrated in style and shared the snapshots on her company’s Facebook page.
She smiled for a photo with Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner at a
star-studded fundraiser. She stood in front of a white Christmas tree,
adorned with white ornaments and bright white lights,
shoulder-to-shoulder in matching sleepwear with Kathy Hilton as the
socialite launched a holiday pajama line.
It was like a scene from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” But
Friend is not reality TV royalty. She made a name for herself in a less
glamorous corner of California: Ventura County Probate Court.
Deep within the drab courthouse across from Oxnard’s agricultural
fields, Friend is one of the county’s main private fiduciaries, chosen
frequently by a probate judge to handle the financial and personal
interests of elderly people deemed too ill to care for themselves.
Friend operated a unique system. Besides being paid for her services,
she often chose her husband, David Esquibias, to be her lawyer. Then,
when her clients needed in-home support, she hired Townsgate In-Home
Services to provide their care. Friend knew Townsgate well: Esquibias
founded it the year they married.
Friend’s elderly clients often footed the bill for all three
services, at least until they could no longer afford or use in-home
health care. Then, with the court’s approval, Friend moved them to
less-expensive care facilities and sold their homes, court records show.
For years, Friend and Esquibias often disclosed their connections to
the court, and Judge Roger Lund approved the payments, even though court
rules and the California Professional Fiduciary Bureau’s code of
conduct generally prohibit such conflicts.
Court records show the couple brought in about $3 million from 2019
to 2025 from clients in the six cases CalMatters reviewed; $2.7 million
went to Townsgate. Friend has other clients whose cases don’t require
public accounting in court and are not similarly reviewable by the
public.
The arrangement was so brazen that court staffers whispered about it, and other attorneys found it troubling.
“Being able to have your own little referral source coming out of the
court system. Wow. That should not be allowed,” said Lisa MacCarley, a
Los Angeles-area probate attorney who was a prominent advocate for
reform during Britney Spears’s conservatorship battle.
Friend wouldn’t agree to an interview for this story. Esquibias did not respond to CalMatters’ questions involving Townsgate.
In a letter to CalMatters, Friend said that she fully complied with
state laws that require her to disclose her connection to Townsgate, get
court approval and make sure the services are in the best interest of
her clients.
“I approach every conservatorship with heightened diligence, careful
oversight, and full transparency,” Friend wrote in her letter. “My work
is designed to withstand scrutiny and ensure the highest standards of
care, as consistently confirmed by the Court and the Bureau.”
But state licensing records indicate she was more involved with
Townsgate than she represented to the court. And CalMatters found at
least two instances in which she did not disclose to the court that her husband owned Townsgate, at least three
cases where Judge Lund called her out for hiring the company without
prior court approval, and one case, records show, where she hired
Townsgate months before the company was even licensed to provide in-home
health care services.
By their nature, the cases that reach conservatorship are often
complex and messy. Some people end up there because they’ve been taken
advantage of by family, friends or previous caregivers. Others fight
their children’s attempts to make decisions for them, or have needs too
great for their family members to bear. Some have no children and no one
else to take care of them. So the court steps in.
With a judge’s approval, conservators exert vast control over their
clients’ lives. They decide who provides them health care and where.
They choose how their money is spent. They sell their clients’ assets to
pay bills. They can control visitation and communication with family
members, setting up the potential for high-stakes and high-emotion
confrontations and amplifying the importance of avoiding even the
appearance of a conflict of interest.
The state agency created 20 years ago to monitor self-dealing in the
industry, the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, does not report taking
any action against Friend for the conflicts.
California lawmakers formed the bureau after a Los Angeles Times investigation
exposed self-dealing by conservators and a failure of judges to stop
it. Friend’s ability to send millions of dollars in business to her
husband’s company highlights how the system continues to rely on
individual judges and, even with the bureau in place, conflicts of
interest can continue for years with little consequence.
Part of the Department of Consumer Affairs, the bureau forbids real or perceived conflicts of interest explicitly in its rules,
saying that fiduciaries must “not engage in any activity where there is
the reasonable appearance of a conflict of interest … or reasonably
could be perceived as self-serving.”
Friend said she disclosed the connection to the bureau. “The Bureau
has renewed my license every year without restriction and has never
found that I violated fiduciary ethical standards or any governing law,”
Friend wrote.
When CalMatters requested Friend’s reports from the bureau, it provided documents thick with black redaction lines. In 2023, the state Legislature significantly restricted what information the bureau can share with the public.
CalMatters attempted to speak with officials at the bureau for a
year. However, they would only respond to emailed questions. The bureau
spokesperson, Monica Vargas, declined to say whether Friend complied
with its conflict-of-interest rules.
“The court is in a better position to ascertain the performance of
the fiduciary and determine whether the various services are in the best
interest of the conserved person,” Vargas wrote.
Separate from state regulations, California court rules
forbid conflicts broadly, saying that a conservator “must not engage
his or her family members to provide services to the conservatee for a
profit or fee when other alternatives are reasonably available.”
However, the rules allow judges to approve such arrangements if they
determine that it’s in the best interest of the conservatee and it’s
disclosed.
In tentative rulings, Judge Lund at times expressed concerns about
Friend’s conflict of interest. However, those rulings are not final and
only show what the judge is thinking. It’s unclear what happened in
court because Ventura County stopped requiring transcripts for probate court in 2022.
Lund’s final court orders never mention Townsgate or demand that
Friend stop using the company. All of the orders approved their
payments. Without official transcripts, it’s impossible to know whether
or how Lund addressed the conflicts in court.
The court record doesn’t reflect any of the conservatees’ attorneys objecting to the conflict of interest.
One court transcript from 2022 obtained by CalMatters details what
happened when one family challenged Friend’s conflict. “The
representation to the Court as I recall is that they … tend to price
themselves at or slightly below the market to avoid any problems,” Lund said. “And that is sufficient for the Court.”
Lund and court leaders declined to comment for this story. Weeks
after CalMatters sent court officials questions about the approvals, the
presiding judge for Ventura County Superior Court announced that he was
reassigning Lund,
moving him to family court. The move came as a shock to many in the
local legal community. In a February hearing, the new judge, Gilbert
Romero, expressed skepticism that he could approve Friend’s arrangements
with her husband. He told her that “the rule of court says very
clearly” that a conservator should avoid “any conflicts or any
appearance of conflict.”
Before that, families of the conservatees often raised their concerns
with the court and filed complaints with the bureau, to no avail.
“She’s making a lot of money, her and her husband,” said Poppy
Helgren. Friend cared for Helgren’s father, Lester Moore, for years.
After Friend moved him to a residential care facility, Moore died from
extreme constipation that was deemed the result of inadequate care,
records show.
Carole Herman, a leading eldercare advocate, is one of the first
people Californians call when they have a problem with a court-appointed
fiduciary. In 2023, she filed a complaint with the Professional
Fiduciaries Bureau about Friend’s connection to Townsgate.
The bureau hasn’t reported any response to the complaint, and Vargas
would not discuss any pending complaints or investigations, calling them
confidential.
“I am totally disappointed and devastated because I worked really
hard to get that bureau started, and they have no teeth,” Herman said.
The six cases
Lester Moore joined the U.S. Navy at age 17. After he was discharged,
Moore moved to California, where he went on to work in the airline
industry. Moore grew up during the Great Depression, and over his
lifetime, he and his wife amassed more than 450 acres of land in his
home state of Arkansas, more than a quarter of a million dollars in
company stock, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments and
savings.
Moore ended up in a court-mandated conservatorship after he was
diagnosed with dementia and his attorney was accused of professional
misconduct. Friend was appointed the conservator in 2012.
For years, Friend relied on a local company to provide Moore’s
caregiving services. She ended that relationship and put Townsgate in
charge in April 2019, according to court filings. At that point, Townsgate didn’t have a license to provide in-home health care services, according to state records. Home care organizations that operate without a license can be fined $900 a day.
Later that year, Friend married Esquibias, according to her marriage license.
In 2019 and 2020, Moore paid Townsgate $145,000 for care, documents filed with the court show, but the records do not show that Friend disclosed her connection to Townsgate.
Then, in February 2020, Friend moved Moore to residential care and
sold his home a few months later. Helgren was immediately concerned
about her father’s care at the facility.
“I had put in complaints everywhere about them,” Helgren said.
A year later, Moore died from septic shock from bowel obstruction and
fecal impaction. A state investigation found Moore’s death was due to
the facility not following Moore’s physician’s orders and its “failure
to monitor” Moore’s condition, according to the state report. The facility has since closed.
CalMatters reviewed Friend’s publicly available cases and found six
in which she used Townsgate for in-home services. She hired Esquibias to
represent her in four of those cases, for which he was paid from
conservatees’ funds.
Some of the others:
- Grace and Joseph Brown lived off Joseph Brown’s U.S. Navy retirement
pay for years, with little debt. The court appointed Friend as Grace
Brown’s conservator after she was diagnosed with dementia. At that time,
Grace had $1.1 million in assets, according to the accounting Friend filed with the court.
From 2020 to 2023, Friend paid Townsgate $873,000 from Brown’s account
for caregiving services, nearly 80% of her assets, according to the
accounting that Friend filed with the court. At least $583,000 was paid
“without prior Court approval, thereby severely depleting [Brown’s]
funds,” according to a tentative ruling Lund issued in January 2024. He said he wanted to discuss forcing Friend to reimburse Brown. However, after the hearing, the judge approved the charges,
calling them “settled, allowed, and approved” in his final order. His
order does not mention Friend reimbursing Brown, and there is no
transcript of the hearing. The judge also approved Friend’s charges totaling $46,000 for conservator fees.
James
Brown, Grace’s stepson, thinks Grace was treated like “a cash cow.” He
said Friend rarely responds to his questions about Grace, who is still
under Friend’s care.
-
Esperanza M. Moorewas born in 1939 in the
Philippines. She traveled the world before she met and married her
husband, a physicist at the U.S. naval base in Port Hueneme. Moore owned
two properties. -
- Ventura County officials asked the court to place Moore in a conservatorship after growing concerned that she was a victim of elder financial abuse.
Within
a month of becoming Moore’s court-appointed conservator, Friend brought
on Townsgate In-Home Services for her care, without “prior Court
approval,” as required by court rules, according to notes from Judge Lund. Still, he later approved the payments.
Friend paid her husband’s company $64,000 from Moore’s funds over roughly three months in 2022. Then, Friend placed her in a less-expensive assisted-living home and sold her properties.
Friend was paid $76,000 for her fiduciary services from November 2021 to December 2024; Esquibias received another $68,000 in attorney fees for his work from December 2021 to March 2025 to represent Friend as she tried to recover money that had been taken from Moore by her previous caregiver.
In
conservatorships, there are two attorneys who are typically paid from
the conservatee’s money — one for the person in the conservatorship and
another for the licensed fiduciary.
Friend was still Moore’s conservator as of this month, according to the court’s website.
- Friend paid Townsgate nearly $680,000 from Molly Cooper’s account from September 2020 to March 2023, court records show.
Her son, who asked that he not be named, said he was happy that his
mother lived out her last days in her home rather than a nursing home.
He said he had no idea about the connection when his mother was alive.
Friend and Esquibias did not disclose their ties to Townsgate until after Cooper died, court records show.
In
addition to Townsgate’s costs, Friend billed Cooper $94,000 for her
fiduciary services; Esquibias received $26,000 from Cooper’s estate in
attorney fees, court records show
James Baker Mabry retired after a career as an electrical
contractor. During his free time, Mabry enjoyed scuba diving and
volunteered with the county water rescue team. “He was always in the
water,” said his daughter, Kristin Tranquada. But as he aged, he was
diagnosed with dementia, and his daughter petitioned the court to be his
conservator. Her dad became angry and threatened her.
Tranquada decided to step aside and let the court appoint a professional.
Tranquada
was grateful that Friend got her father to cooperate with caregivers.
But as time went on, she and her sister began to question Friend’s
professionalism. Tranquada said Friend hadn’t taken the necessary steps
to transfer all of her father’s bills. Plus, Friend had allowed Mabry to
get a puppy, which eventually lived with one of Friend’s employees.
Then the sisters found out about Townsgate.
Friend paid Townsgate
$550,000 from Mabry’s funds over three years, and the court approved
the payments. Lund approved a total of $128,000 in conservator fees for
Friend in 2022 and 2024. He also approved $22,000 for attorney fees to Esquibias. Friend eventually moved Mabry into a care home and sold his home with the court’s approval.
“This conservator’s husband received a great deal of money that my father needs for his care,” Tranquada said.
Robert Baskin, an attorney whose law firm represented at least two of
Friend’s clients who paid Townsgate, said he didn’t see anything wrong
with the arrangement as long as it was disclosed and approved by the
court.
“I don’t think that it is a conflict for a conservator to hire an
affiliated agency like Townsgate,” Baskin said. “They did an outstanding
job at a reduced hourly rate.”
He said conservatorships can naturally pit fiduciaries against family
members. “You get a lot of people complaining because they are looking
at their ultimate inheritance,” Baskin said.
He also had his own financial connection to Friend, property records show. In 2018, his family trust lent her $1 million.
The repayment terms of the agreement were not included. Baskin declined
to comment on the loan. “I’m not going to comment on my own business
dealings. I’ve loaned many people money.”
In her letter, Friend told CalMatters that her “personal finances are
entirely appropriate and, apart from what is a matter of public record,
private.”
Friend’s previous run-in with the bureau
Before becoming a licensed fiduciary, Angelique Friend worked as a business analyst for Countrywide Financial, according to her LinkedIn profile. She got her fiduciary license in 2009 and built her business.
Licensed fiduciaries such as Friend manage affairs for seniors,
people with disabilities and children. Fiduciaries can also be appointed
by courts to administer estates when someone dies.
In 2017, an appeals court
criticized Friend for her role in delivering an inheritance to two
brothers who had been disinherited in their mother’s will. Friend argued
that because the beneficiary, her grandson, was already dead when his
grandmother died, the assets should be distributed as if she died
without a will.
The Court of Appeal noted that the woman did have
a will; she expressly disinherited her two sons and awarded all the
assets to her grandchild.
Full Article & Source:
She directed $2.7 million from her elderly clients to her husband’s company. The judge approved every penny
