O.C. conservator pleads not guilty to stealing $900,000 from estate

A court-appointed conservator suspected of stealing more than $900,000 from the estate of a 92-year-old woman to feed her gambling addiction pleaded not guilty to embezzlement charges Tuesday.

Jennifer Ann Wenger, 53, of San Juan Capistrano showed no emotion during the brief hearing at Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. She remains in custody on $1-million bail.

Wenger was arrested Dec. 26 on suspicion of stealing funds from the estate of Goldie Carlova, a former London fur designer whose husband wrote novels, including the story of two women who became pirates. Carlova died in April 2004.

Prosecutors allege that Wenger wrote 65 checks to herself from Carlova’s estate from 2004 to 2006 and deposited eight annuity checks to her personal account that were mistakenly issued to Carlova after her death.

Carlova’s niece, Patricia DeRousie-Webb, said she contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Department after being notified by the bank of suspicious activity in Carlova’s account.

“I think this has been outrageous,” said DeRousie-Webb, who lives in New York City.

She said her aunt and her aunt’s husband, novelist John Carlova, lived in Laguna Beach and then Lake Forest after moving to the United States from England, where most of her family still lives.

John Carlova, a sports car enthusiast, published several novels, including “Mistress of the Seas,” which was about historical figures Anne Bonnie and Mary Read, who disguised themselves as men and became pirates. The book was optioned by Hollywood producer Jon Peters in the late 1980s but never became a movie.

When her husband of 53 years died in 2000, Goldie Carlova was frail, had emphysema and needed assistance handling her finances, according to probate documents and relatives.

In 2000, the court appointed Wenger to oversee Carlova’s finances. She had been a private conservator for about three years, working in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

When Goldie Carlova died, Wenger successfully petitioned the court to be appointed administrator of the estate. At the time, Carlova’s assets included her Lake Forest home, several bank accounts, annuities and a 1982 Buick. The estate’s value was $1,064,700.

But Wenger’s bookkeeping was lax, documents show. She failed to tell anxious heirs about Carlova’s expensive jewelry collection, which still has not been accounted for, or major decisions about the estate, the documents said.

In March, probate documents showed more than $799,000 was unaccounted for. DeRousie-Webb said she had tried for months to get authorities to investigate and that it was not until the courts forced Wenger to provide a final accounting of Carlova’s estate that the scope of the alleged theft became clear.

When Wenger couldn’t account for the missing funds, she told a bond agent in March that she had taken funds from the conservatorship as if they were loans, according to John Rough, bonding agent and owner of Bond Services of California LLC, which was one of the companies that bonded Wenger.

According to court documents, Wenger spoke to Rough over the telephone and said she had tried to deposit $90,000 into Carlova’s account but couldn’t because the bank had them frozen.

She said she had another $90,000 to deposit but could not, for the same reason.

Rough said he initially believed that $180,000 was taken from the estate but that in a subsequent conversation with Wenger she said the total was closer to $600,000.

Rough said Wenger told him she intended to return the funds and took the money at a time when she was going through a divorce.

“Ms. Wenger further indicated to me that she was afraid that she would go to jail,” Rough’s declaration said.

As the probate case wound its way through the civil court system, a criminal investigation was beginning, said prosecutor Marc Labreche of the district attorney’s economic crimes unit.

District attorney’s investigators pored over estate records and Wenger’s personal accounts. They said they discovered she had embezzled more than $900,000 and had spent most of the money gambling over the Internet.

On Dec. 16, the county public guardian and public administrator won a $1.8-million civil judgment -- including loss to the estate plus interest -- against Wenger for mishandling Carlova’s financial affairs, said Deputy County Counsel James Harvey.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September signed a comprehensive package of bills aimed at curbing the abuse of elderly and disabled adults following calls to overhaul California’s troubled conservatorship system.

The new laws strengthen oversight of professional conservators through a system of state licensure and require greater supervision of their work by the judges who appoint them. The need for better oversight was highlighted in a Times series in 2005 that described how some professional conservators were able to gain authority over seniors’ affairs and, in some cases, steal their assets, isolate them from relatives and run up fees.

Without the new laws, Labreche said, it’s unlikely that Wenger would have been caught and charged with embezzlement.

If convicted, Wenger could face up to 56 years in prison.

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david.reyes@latimes.com

mai.tran@latimes.com