Estate Financial president Karen Guth getting out of prison early

December 11, 2013

A principal in a fraudulent $3oo million investment scheme she ran out of the Estate Financial Inc. office in Paso Robles, which financially ruined thousands of people, is slated to be released after serving a little more than six years in prison, according to a Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation notice of release.

After spending six years and five months of an eight year sentence, Karen Guth, is to be released under San Luis Obispo County Probation supervision on March 31, 2014. If she commits no further violations while on probation, she will likely be released after one year by statute.

San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Jac Crawford sentenced Estate Financial, Inc. principal Guth to 12 years and her son Josh Yaguda to eight years on Dec. 7, 2009. Yaguda was released after spending three years and four months in prison.

Yaguda and Guth plead guilty to fraudulently selling securities without the proper licenses, lying to investors and stealing or destroying property worth $3.2 million.

Even so, EFI’s portfolio contained more than $317 million in monies owed to investors when the company filed bankruptcy in 2008. Of that, only $21,000 was held free and clear.

Guth and Yaguda illegally used investor monies contracted to fund construction projects to fund other businesses they owned, to pay investors for non-related projects, and to cover operating expenses.