By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-05 03:45:05 | Updated at 2026-08-05 16:25:20
14 hours ago
A former California radio host and his journalist wife have been accused of spending much of the money they raised in an online fundraiser on frivolous expenses rather than his medical bills.
Ronn Owens, a longtime anchor at KGO, 80, promoted the GoFundMe last year to raise money for his family, saying he and his wife, Jan Black, were dealing with 'overwhelming financial difficulties' amid his 'profound' health challenges.
Owens has Parkinson's disease and has survived four bouts of cancer, which the fundraiser said has 'taken a toll, both physically and financially' on the family.
It noted that their supplemental health insurance does not cover all the 'residual' health care expenses following Owens' multiple health crises, which also include COVID and pneumonia.
But the US Trustee's Office has since found that just over 10 percent – or about $17,000 – of the roughly $132,000 raised from the campaign was used for pharmacy and medical expenses.
Much of the rest of the money instead went to mortgage payments, totaling more than $61,000, and to the limited liability companies they controlled, to which they contributed more than $44,000, the Trustee's Office said in a filing on Monday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The family also allegedly used the funds to splurge on food delivery, credit card payments, their daughter's legal expenses, travel expenses and retail purchases.
Meanwhile, Owens and Black were taking in more than $20,000 in monthly income – and spent more than $520,000 out of their own bank accounts, the filing claims.
The onetime power couple's actions were not necessarily illegal, the trustee concluded, but said it presented 'a serious question whether donors received what they were promised.'
Longtime Bay Area radio legend Ronn Owens, now 80 (pictured) and his wife have been accused of spending much of the money they raised in an online fundraiser on frivolous expenses
Owens promoted the GoFundMe last year to raise money for his family, saying he and his wife, Jan Black, were dealing with 'overwhelming financial difficulties' amid his 'profound' health challenges
Owens and his wife have since argued that the online fundraiser, which remains active, did not specifically say the donations would be reserved exclusively for his medical expenses.
Instead, Black, whose real name is Elizabeth Ann Naylor, argued that it was meant to help with the family's broader financial difficulties.
The fundraiser came as experts warned their daughter Laura's legal expenses could run into six figures.
Prosecutors have said the now 35-year-old woman doctored a sonogram and pregnancy video, and even lied under oath, as she tried to get former Bachelor star Clayton Echard to take a paternity test.
According to court documents, Laura testified in November 2023 that she was 24 weeks pregnant with twins and Echard was the father.
But she dropped her paternity suit at the end of that year, saying she had miscarried at some point without knowing it.
Laura is now fully dependent on her parents, whom she lives with as the criminal case continues.
Still, Jennifer A Giaimo, an attorney with the US Trustee's Office, said: 'I don't think it's reasonable to assume that donors would know or expect that GoFundMe money is being used to pay Macy's credit card bills.'
The US Trustee's Office has since found that just over 10 percent - or about $17,000 - of the roughly $132,000 raised from the campaign was used for pharmacy and medical expenses
Questions about the couple's finances first emerged after Owens and Naylor filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in Arizona last August, reporting about $2.3 million in liabilities.
But the bankruptcy filing showed that a significant portion of the couple's debt, more than $400,000, was incurred in the first half of the year – after the GoFundMe was launched.
It describes how they owe $300,000 in credit card debt to creditors like American Express and seven separate Bank of America accounts, and notes that Owens was being sued by JP Morgan Chase for failing to pay $51,000.
The couple, who were once considered Bay Area media royalty, have also claimed they have $6,640 in monthly payments – not including their $14,188 monthly mortgage, which they apparently stopped paying.
Yet their pensions and Social Security income, which totals $21,000 a month, more than covers their $150-a-month medical and dental care as well as their $225 supplemental health insurance.
Owens and Black are also only paying $1,500 for life insurance and $425 for insurance on their daughter's horses.
The couple should have also had some money from selling their longtime San Francisco home for $3.5 million in 2020, as the home they had purchased in Scottsdale, Arizona, is now valued at $1.5 million.
Owens also allegedly spent some of the funds on their daughter Laura's legal expenses
Laura had tried to get former Bachelor star Clayton Echard (pictured) to take a paternity test
The bankruptcy case was ultimately dismissed in January after the couple allegedly failed to comply with recommendations from a Chapter 13 trustee, according to court records cited in Monday's filing.
They then filed a Chapter 11 case just four months later, on May 22.
At first, the US Trustee's Office sought to dismiss that case with a one-year ban on the couple refiling for bankruptcy.
But after reviewing the couple's bank records and amended financial statements, the request was increased to two years – which the federal agency said would give lenders and other creditors ample time to pursue foreclosures, lawsuits and other collection efforts.
It notes that the couple made numerous inconsistent remarks among their sworn disclosures in the two cases.
'Across three sets of schedules... the Debtors have sworn to statements that cannot all be true,' the trustee wrote in Monday's filing.
The US Trustee's Office is now seeking to dismiss Owens and Black's bankruptcy case and bar them from submitting a new claim for two years
Owens and Naylor attribute at least some of those misstatements to prior counsel and Owens' health.
'A lot of this was [a] lack of understanding of what was actually being asked and what was necessary to file,' Naylor said at a July 16 meeting of creditors, according to the Chronicle.
The trustee then acknowledged that there is evidence that the couple intended to correct errors made to their previous statements, but maintained that the discrepancies were serious.
Still, the Trustee's Office is seeking to dismiss the bankruptcy case, noting there seems to be no meaningful pool of assets that a trustee could sell to repay creditors if it were converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation.
It is asking a judge to find that the couple filed for bankruptcy in bad faith – and to prohibit either of them from seeking bankruptcy protection for two years.
But any claims involving solicitation or the use of the donations will have to be pursued outside the couple's bankruptcy hearings by donors or by GoFundMe itself, the Trustee's Office said, noting that all of the proceeds from the fundraiser have been spent.
