John Gantus

March 1, 2015

JOHN MICHEL GANTUS [#55038], 67, of Glendale, was disbarred March 1, 2015 and ordered to comply with rule 9.20 of the California Rules of Court. The State Bar Court found that Gantus misappropriated $365,059.84 from his father’s estate, failed to file an inventory and appraisal or to file federal and state income tax returns for his late father and his estate and breached his fiduciary duties in the administration of the estate. Gantus and his sister were to share equally in their late father’s estate, which was admitted to probate in November 2001. Gantus was to serve as executor of his father’s will the following March and was supposed to file an inventory and appraisal within four months. He didn’t do so for more than eight years. He also did not deposit any of this late father’s assets into an estate fiduciary account and instead put them into a non-interest bearing checking account on which both he and his father were signatories. For more than seven years until he was removed as executor, Gantus kept rental income from the estate, making cash payments to himself and paying credit card bills and his son’s college tuition. When his sister asked for an accounting and her share of the estate, he did not oblige, leading her to hire an attorney. Gantus and his sister ultimately mediated the case and arrived at a settlement agreement. He had one prior record of discipline, a 1998 public reproval for failing to deposit client funds in his client trust account or communicate with a client.