Las
Vegas "guardian" Jared E. Shafer
sued
for "embezzling" $420,000.00
from
95 year old former "ward"
Federal
Racketeering lawsuit
filed on August 8
"Shafer and the other
Defendants herein are responsible for embezzling, taking
under wrongful pretenses
and otherwise fraudulently or wrongfully diminishing
the value of Olvera's
and the Trust's assets in an amount to be proved at trial,
but in excess of $420,000.00."
"Shafer embezzled funds
from the bank accounts of the Guardianship Estate
of Guadalupe Olvera,
by submitting false or inflated invoices for payment
and by taking possession
of social security and pension funds without
rendering an accounting
of how those funds were kept and utilized."
"By Defendants' multiple
fraudulent acts of embezzlement of funds and
receiving possession
of money in excess of $250.00, Defendants
committed predicated
racketeering acts."
"Upon information and
belief, many of the reimbursements paid by the
Guardianship, Estate
and/or Trust benefiting Guadalupe Olvera to PFSN
were for charges made
to the personal credit card(s) of Jared E. Shafer."
"Upon information and
belief, the Guardianship was charged for
expenses completely
unrelated to Plaintiffs well being and care."
.
Private "guardian"
Jared E. Shafer Guadalupe Olvera and daughter Rebecca
Schultz
INSIDE VEGAS EXCLUSIVE
by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
August 11, 2014
LAS VEGAS - World War 2 hero Guadalupe
Olvera was discharged from the United States military in 1949 after two
tours of duty, one in the Army, another in the Air Force. For the next
70 years, Olvera remained a soldier at heart.
On Friday, August 8, 2014, attorney Brian
Boggess on behalf of Guadalupe Olvera filed a comprehensive 15
page federal racketeering (RICO) lawsuit against Las Vegas for-hire
guardian Jared E. Shafer; his company Professional Fiduciary Services of
Nevada, Inc. (PFSN); Shafer's employees Amy Deittrick and Patience Bristol;
Wells Fargo Bank and its trust officers Eve Mills and Susan Bull; the Center
for Guardianship Certification, Inc.; and Sun City Anthem Community Association,
Inc. and their employee Cathy Elliot.
Olvera's problems began in November 2009
when his wife Carmela passed away, and he was deemed a ward of the Nevada
court because of physical disabilities he suffered in the war including
an almost complete loss of hearing.
According to Olvera's daughter Rebecca
Schultz, "Cathy Elliot had kidnapped my father from his Sun City Anthem
home so I couldn't see him. That caused me to contact the Guardianship
Commissioner's office for help. A woman answering the phone for Jon Norheim
referred me directly to Jared Shafer, giving me his unlisted home phone
number. Shafer then referred me to his friend and attorney
Elyse Tyrell, who had me sign temporary papers making Shafer guardian
to get rid of the exploiter Elliott. Everything Tyrell told me was one
big fat lie, and as soon as Shafer was temporary guardian, Tyrell told
me she worked for Jared, even though I had paid her to help me."
Schultz continued; After Shafer and Tyrell
removed my father from Cathy Elliot, I found it very disturbing that neither
Shafer nor Tyrell did anything to pursue charges against Elliot or to complain
to Sun City Anthem, given the fact that Tyrell stated to my husband and
I that she had no doubt Elliot was an exploiter.
The temporary nature of the guardianship
dragged on for 10 months during which time Olvera longed to return to his
home in Santa Cruz County, California to live the rest of his life with
his loving family. But moving away from Nevada became nearly impossible
because of objections launched by Shafer, a "Nationally Certified Guardian,"
who at the time was bleeding Olvera's assets and did not want the flow
of cash to cease as would happen if the "ward" moved to another state.
Olvera's family hired Las Vegas attorney
Brian Boggess to try to liberate their patriarch. On September 8,
2010, Mr. Olvera testified
in Family Court stating: "I'm going to go to California no matter what!
I'm not going to live here. I don't need that man either. I don't need
Jared (Shafer)."
Guardianship Commissioner Norheim ignored
his plea, and ordered Olvera to remain isolated and confined to his half
million dollar 3,000 square foot Henderson house on a hill overlooking
Las Vegas, a town where he had no family or friends.
Realizing he was being exploited, Olvera
reverted to his military training and issued orders to his family to immediately
remove him from Jared Shafer's custody, and return him to Santa Cruz County
on the Central California coast. His family complied with his wishes, but
after reinstating his California citizenship, Shafer still refused to relinquish
control of Olvera's estate. That's when Olvera's
War began.
Learning of Olvera's departure, Jared Shafer
ordered Family Court Judge Charles Hoskin to issue a Bench
Warrant for the arrest of Olvera's only child Rebecca Schultz, claiming:
"Ms. Schultz kidnapped Mr. Olvera during the night and brought him to California."
Judge Hoskin dutifully complied, and a three year legal battle to restore
Olvera's civil rights ensued, while Shafer retained control of Olvera's
assets and drained his bank accounts to pay his high priced lawyers at
Solomon
Dwiggins & Freer to fight for Olvera's return to Nevada.
During the three year battle, Shafer also
hired the Grunsky Law Firm in Watsonville, California to attempt to transfer
Rebecca Shultz' bench warrant to CA without success since it wasn't for
a felony, but merely a misdemeanor contempt of court warrant. Shafer
paid Grunsky over $12,000.00 from Olvera's trust to attempt this fruitless
endeavor.
.
.
But Guadalupe Olvera had already been warmly
welcomed back to his community, and soon became a local celebrity after
being honored by the VFW as one of the oldest living veterans in California.
However, against all odds, at 95 years old he was about to enlist in the
second war of his lifetime, not in the military, but a fight to the death
to restore his civil rights and dignity.
During his first few years back home, Olvera
was forced to hire attorneys in Nevada and California to fight Shafer and
his henchmen. Meanwhile, Shafer with the cooperation of Wells Fargo
Bank trust officers Eve Mills and Susan Bull continued to bleed Olvera's
trust to pay attorneys in Nevada to try to force him back to Las Vegas
so PSFN could maintain control over his remaining assets including his
valuable Sun City Anthem home.
Shafer also demanded Olvera's two California-earned
carpenter pensions be given to him, which caused the Carpenter Trust Corporations
to file a federal lawsuit over who should receive the funds. This cost
Olvera nearly $50,000.00 more from his assets to pay California attorneys
to fight Shafer's demands.
Totally fed up, on December 3, 2011, Mr.
Olvera's daughter Rebecca authored a six
page formal complaint to Nevada Attorney General Catherine-Cortez Masto
to document that her elderly father was being exploited by his court appointed
guardian, and ask that Olvera be released into his family's care in California.
Cortez-Masto refused to take action.
Then on January 18, 2012, Rebecca turned
to the Center for Guardianship Certification (CGC) for help. The national
accrediting agency also refused her request.
The expensive court battles continued until
August 23, 2013 when California Superior Court Judge Paul Marigonda ruled:
"Petitioner's condition having improved and stabilized in his new home
environment with his immediate family, and being able to manage his personal
and financial affairs, the court orders termination of the Conservatorship."
Jared Shafer was furious! This was the
first time one of his "guardianships" was terminated against his wishes.
Because of the bad publicity generated by Mr. Olvera's battle, Shafer sued
Rebecca Schultz for defamation in Nevada State Court. He also sued Charles
Pascal, the blind and indigent son-in-law of another of his PFSN
wards, the late Marcy Dudeck, for allegedly conspiring with Schultz to
slander his name and professional reputation. More on this later.
During her battle to free her dad, Rebecca
Schultz learned a lot about Nevada politics.
Wondering why Nevada's Attorney General
casually sloughed off her documented six page formal complaint, Schultz
learned that Nevada A.G Cortez-Masto's late father, then-Clark County Commissioner
Manny Cortez, was a close personal friend of Shafer and helped appoint
him to his first public position with Clark County. Prior to that appointment,
Shafer was an executive with ROM
AMER PHARMACEUTICALS LTD., a company that drew the attention of the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for "Proposed Sale of Unregistered
Securities by Individuals." The company peddled a Romanian made cure-all
called "Gerovital H3" mainly to senior citizens promising it was an effective
anti-aging treatment and antidepressant
While Shafer was running Rom-Amer in Las
Vegas, he had his first brush with federal authorities. The SEC on March
25, 1977 announced "TRADING SUSPENDED IN ROM-AMER PHARMACEUTICALS, LTD."
The SEC
Press Release stated: "suspension of exchange and over-the-counter
trading in the securities of Rom Amer Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (Rom-Amer),
a California corporation located in Las Vegas, Nevada." "The Commission
has been advised that, although a bill has been passed by the Nevada State
Assembly to authorize the prescription and sale of the company's antidepressant
drug known as Gerovital H3 in the State of Nevada, no insurance can be
given that the bill will be enacted into law."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Consumer
magazine wrote: "No health claims for Gerovital have been substantiated,
and FDA considers it an unapproved new drug. It has caused low blood pressure,
respiratory difficulties, and convulsions in some users."
After Shafer left Rom-Amer to become Clark
County Public Guardian, the
FDA banned Gerovital H3 from interstate commerce as an unapproved injectable
drug and prohibited its importation.
So much for Shafer's quest to help senior
citizens fight aging and depression!
But the Rom-Amer, SEC skirmish was not
Shafer's last brush with federal authorities over peddling unregistered
securities without a license mainly to senior citizens.
In 2009, Shafer, now in private practice,
narrowly avoided SEC criminal prosecution by returning money he "fraudulently
obtained from unknowing senior citizens to invest in a Ponzi scheme." The
funds of PFSN wards were being used without the ward's knowledge or consent
to "pay promised returns to earlier investors and for family living expenses."
Shafer was forced to return his fraudulently
obtained commissions, interest payments and principal, and for doing so,
was not charged with a crime.
BACKGROUND on Shafer's second brush with
the SEC::
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/claims/vescor.htm
http://www.vescorreceivership.com/rl/documents/ComplaintGamettandKingGroup.pdf
http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/UtahSecuritiesCase1.pdf
http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/UtahSecuritiesCase2.pdf
As I mentioned earlier, on January 18,
2012, after being shirked by the Nevada Attorney General, Rebecca Schultz
filed another formal
complaint against Shafer and PFSN, Inc., this time with the Center
for Guardianship Certification (CGC), the national non-profit organization
that certifies private guardians. After nothing happened, Schultz discovered
that the organization that certified Shafer and his protégé
Patience
Bristol (now serving 3-8 years in Nevada State Penitentiary for exploiting
the elderly) has little or no credibility per this report by the U.S. Government
Accountability Office entitled "Cases of Financial Exploitation, Neglect,
and Abuse of Seniors:"
Government
Accountability Office report on Center for Guardianship Certification
From page 30 of the report:
Nevada require(s) certain guardians
to obtain certification through the Center for Guardianship Certification
(CGC), a private nonprofit that offers national guardian certification.
We
submitted applications to the organization using two fictitious identities
with driver's licenses from Virginia. We also listed fake educational and
professional backgrounds for our applicants, which the certifying organization
did
not verify (emphasis added). For example, one applicant
claimed to have a law degree and almost 3 years experience as a guardian,
while the other claimed 3 years of experience as a guardian at a nonexistent
guardianship firm. Both applicants studied for and passed the National
Certified Guardian Examination, which covers guardianship ethical principles
and best practices. After the exam, a proctor asked to see the photo identifications
of our fictitious applicants, but failed to recognize them as bogus driver's
licenses. Once we passed the test, the names of our fictitious applicants
were listed on the organization's website as nationally certified guardians.Passing
the national exam is the sole requirement to be a certified guardian in
Illinois and Nevada. Officials in both states told us that local
courts do not conduct background or credit checks, indicating
that each of the two fictitious guardians
could have been appointed
by a court in those states with no further screening (emphasis
added).
Based on the lack of oversight and credibility
demonstrated by the CGC, and the disinterest of Nevada's Attorney General,
it's no wonder persons like Shafer and Bristol are court appointed with
power of attorney to completely control the lives and assets of wealthy
Nevada wards of the court. Sadly, per the findings of the GAO regarding
the CGC, it appears that anybody, no matter how unqualified or corrupt,
can become a "Nationally Certified Public Guardian" in Nevada, and ruin
lives without fear of legal consequence.
Many family members of exploited current
and former PFSN wards have spoken out over the years. This has caused Jared
Shafer and his henchmen to file SLAPP
suits (strategic lawsuits against public participation) to try to stop
them.
A hearing will be held this Tuesday, August
12, on a motion to dismiss a Shafer defamation lawsuit against family members
of two of his former "wards." The defendants are Charles Pascal, and Rebecca
Schultz.
At
8:15 AM Tuesday, in Clark County District Court, Dept. 18, Judge David
Barker will hear arguments from Shafer's attorneys to determine whether
the libel suit he filed against Charles Pascal, an indigent blind man,
and Rebecca Schultz should proceed. (Pascal is shown in this photo with
his mother in law the late Marcy Dudeck. Click HERE
to read Mrs. Dudeck's story.)
On March 13, 2014, Judge Joanna Kishner
dismissed
Shafer's initial defamation suit without prejudice based on a lack
of evidence to prove Schultz authored a series of allegedly defamatory
Internet articles about Shafer and his associates. Because the dismissal
was without prejudice, it allowed Shafer's attorneys to re-file in the
event they discovered new evidence linking Schultz to the postings.
Shafer's legal team have filed new motions
trying to prove Schultz conspired with Pascal to slander Shafer's reputation
by accusing him, among other things, of elder abuse and financial exploitation
of his wards.
However, because Charles Pascal has been
blind since birth and is indigent and must defend himself pro se, the ACLU,
National Federation for the Blind, US Dept. of Justice (DOJ), and Americans
With Disabilities Act (ADA) have intervened on his behalf to force Shafer
to pay for Braille and audio translations of over 1,600 pages of documents
generated so far in this case at a cost estimated to exceed $50,000.00.
This accommodation normally cost the plaintiff in a civil action $5 per
page translated into Braille not including audio recording, binding, and
shipping per ADA requirements, a cost Shafer wants paid by the taxpayers.
But this is a civil case not a criminal action, and in civil matters taxpayers
are not required to provide this service according to sources at the Clark
County Regional Justice Center. Furthermore, Shafer has long known that
Pascal is blind and requires special accommodations in order to be able
to defend himself in a court action.
In a May 12, 2014 letter
Pascal dictated to the court, he explains his position and special needs.
He requests that the entire Nevada Code of Civil Procedure be transcribed
into Braille and audio because he states he can't properly defend himself
without knowing the Nevada Court's procedural rules. Pascal says the Nevada
Law Center informed him that all pro se defendants must follow all court
rules while defending themselves. This will add more to the Plaintiff's
costs.
Judge Barker is expected to rule on this
technicality first thing Tuesday morning.
Based on Pascal's request for ADA compliance
and Shafer's insistence that the burden be placed on the taxpayers, the
DOJ recently opened an ADA investigation of the Clark County Eighth Judicial
Court requiring over 150 questions be answered regarding the county's compliance
with ADA rules. This action is requiring the expenditure of dozens of hours
of labor by court officials, and is currently the talk of the courthouse.
Like Schultz, Charles Pascal has accused
Shafer of removing over $500,000.00 in "fees" from his late mother-in-law's
estate, a major portion of her net worth.
Below is only one of the payments paid
to Shafer without the consent of Mrs. Dudeck or her family members. Since
she was a ward of the court at the time the check was written and legally
prohibited from signing legal documents or checks, it's assumed that her
signature was forged by Shafer or one of his crew.
(Click HERE
for a list of Shafer's other court approved overcharges.)
Nevada Revised Statutes state that private
guardians are not permitted to convert more than 5% of their ward's assets
to pay themselves without court approval. But in Nevada, the local Family
Courts have never refused to approve Shafer's payments to himself or his
henchmen, and in Dudeck's and Olvera's cases, the majority of their assets
were taken from their estates and never accounted for.
Tuesday's hearing should be fascinating
because, so far, Pascal, who has a Masters Degree from Layola Marymount
University, has not been required to answer Shafer's complaint because
it was served on him in California - outside Nevada's jurisdiction in a
civil case - in a form he could not read or respond to. He also adamantly
denies writing the RipOff Reports against Shafer. In addition, because
Pascal is indigent he cannot be forced to travel to Nevada in the
event Shafer's lawsuit is allowed to continue. The court has arranged for
Pascal to appear telephonically at Tuesday's hearing per Judge Barker's
order and be prepared to argue the jurisdictional and ADA issues in proper
person.
BACKGROUND on Shafer's Defamation law
suits:
.
http://www.americanmafia.com/Inside_Vegas/7-28-14_Inside_Vegas.html
http://www.americanmafia.com/Inside_Vegas/6-30-14_Inside_Vegas.html
Persuant to Nevada and United States Civil
RICO statutes, Guadalupe Olvera (1941 photo-left) is asking for triple
damages against all Defendants. As of now, no trial date has been scheduled
for OLVERA vs. SHAFER.
If you would like to be immediately informed
about the progress of the cases mentioned above, click HERE
for a free subscription to Steve Miller's Las Vegas Insider E-Briefs.
Full OLVERA vs. SHAFER Federal Racketeering
Lawsuit: http://www.stevemiller4lasvegas.com/OlveravsShafer.pdf
