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

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. 

Dig deeper:

• Read Byrhonda’s full story 
• Or catch up on the entire series, Broken Trusts

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The insurer told state regulators it made its decision in part to cut costs. Roughly 3,500 Medi-Cal patients rely on Health Net to pay for assisted living costs, and living in a facility can total between $5,000 and $7,000 a month.

Senior advocates and family members of assisted living residents fear Health Net’s decision will lead to people becoming homeless or being shuffled between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. 

Four weeks ago, Health Net informed Matt Johnstone that it will eliminate its assisted living benefit that pays for his father’s around-the-clock care in a North Hollywood facility. His father has dementia, and neither Johnstone nor his brother can afford the facility costs on their own, or safely meet his needs at home. Without insurance coverage, Johnstone fears his father could end up on the streets.

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State lawmakers want to keep existing refinery rules that prioritize worker-safety protections, despite opposition from the oil industry, writes CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo.

The dispute underscores lawmakers’ attempts to further regulate the oil and gas industry and prevent catastrophes, following an explosion last year at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery.

The union-backed bill, which recently cleared a key fiscal committee, would lock in workers’ rights to refuse dangerous work, participate in safety reviews, choose their own representatives for safety planning and report hazards anonymously.

But the Western States Petroleum Association, the state’s main oil lobby, argues that the bill would override a 2024 legal settlement, in which state regulators agreed to pursue changes to refinery safety rules in exchange for the oil industry dropping years of litigation.

• Zach Leary, a lobbyist for the association, at a June hearing: “Unfortunately, it’s this type of regulatory and legislative whiplash that creates a business environment that is very difficult to operate in.”

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta is taking a victory lap after a U.S. district court in Massachusetts on Friday rejected a rule sought by the Trump administration that would have excluded coverage for certain types of gender-affirming care under the Affordable Care Act.