CA says he stole from ailing seniors. Officials missed the red flags

 by Lynn La

Illustration by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

Gregory Oveross’ job was to take care of his elderly clients’ money. Instead, state prosecutors say, he and his partner stole $6 million from his clients’ accounts. 

And then he left key parts of his reports to the courts blank, according to court records. 

Over the last two decades, California has set up systems to stop fiduciaries from stealing from their clients. But, as CalMatters investigative reporter Byrhonda Lyons has shown this year, many of those checks have been abandoned or ignored. 

In her latest installment, Byrhonda digs into the Oveross case to show a couple of key ways that is happening: 

Judges not catching suspicious behavior.

Lawmakers in 2006 passed a law requiring fiduciaries to turn in more detailed documentation to account for how they spent their clients’ money. By forcing fiduciaries to list check numbers, the courts would ostensibly be able to spot if check numbers were missing and stop fiduciaries from writing hidden checks. 

But in one case, Oveross allegedly wrote himself 19 checks totaling $670,000 over the course of a year from one client’s accounts, according to court filings. In his accounting to the court, he left the column for check numbers blank. Still, a Los Angeles judge signed off. 

• Judge Sandra Bean, the supervising judge for probate court in Alameda County: “Not having check numbers would be a big red flag.”

State watchdogs not having any teeth.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 2021 law that would have required courts to notify the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau if judges had punished fiduciaries for abusing their licenses. 

Thing is, that requirement was to go into effect only if lawmakers funded it. They haven’t. So the bureau often has to rely on the honor system. 

Byrhonda reviewed the annual statements Oveross made to the bureau. He omitted a case in which he’d been accused of wrongdoing. And, for two straight years, he didn’t answer a question about whether he had settled any complaints. 

The bureau still issued Oveross a valid license each year.

After receiving complaints about him, the bureau forwarded the case to the California Department of Justice. But it didn’t take his license until two years later, less than two weeks after he was arrested.  

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CA says he stole from ailing seniors. Officials missed the red flags