At Least $1.2 Million in Superior Court Funds Missing

Authorities are investigating why $1.2 million, and possibly a lot more, is missing from Los Angeles County Superior Court bank accounts, and they are focusing on whether a senior accountant illegally distributed or even stole the money, court officials said Tuesday.

The accountant, Gregory Pentoney, was sent a letter of discharge from his post as top auditor for the court system earlier this month, court officials said. Pentoney could not be reached for comment.

Pentoney was in charge of auditing a department with a $300-million budget. The court also sees $200 million in bail money, lawyer fees and other funds pass through its bank accounts each year, according to John Clarke, the court’s executive officer and clerk.

Clarke said he placed Pentoney on administrative leave, and then moved to fire him, because he was negligent in performing his duties and was “improperly disbursing county funds.”

Pentoney has until Friday to contest the court’s attempt to fire him, Clarke said.

Court administrators stressed that they moved to fire Pentoney not because of any specific evidence of wrongdoing, but because he had failed to do his job correctly.

“I am not relying on any information from the district attorney in this matter,” Clarke said. “The information I am relying on has been developed by our auditors regarding his performance of his job duties.”

But Robert Parkin, the presiding judge-elect of the court, said Pentoney was a focus of the criminal probe. “I don’t know whether it is focusing solely on him [or] if there are others involved.”

Search warrants have been executed at Pentoney’s office and at his home for evidence of criminal activity, Clarke said.

Court officials also said that a local attorney may somehow be involved, but that they could not comment because of the ongoing criminal investigation.

Parkin was one of several court administrators who cautioned that just because money is missing does not mean Pentoney--or anyone else--stole it.

“It might well be that proper procedures were not followed and money was disbursed to people who were entitled to the money,” Parkin said. “Or it could be embezzlement. There are lots of possibilities, and that is what is being investigated. What I do know is that proper procedures were not followed.”

The missing money was in a “condemnation account,” where municipalities and development agencies place public funds in trust while litigation is in progress over efforts to acquire private property for public purposes using eminent domain laws. “So in that sense it is taxpayer money,” Clarke said.

Court administrators determined that at least $1.2 million was “missing” about six weeks ago, and referred the matter to the Special Investigations Division of the district attorney’s office, which investigates significant cases involving possible malfeasance by government employees.

The amount could go higher, potentially into several millions of dollars, “when they start looking into it,” Parkin said.

Ronald H. “Mike” Carroll, head of Special Investigations Division, had no comment, nor did officials of the county auditor controller’s office, which is assisting the district attorney’s office in the investigation.