The State Bar website reveals that California's attorneys' registry and certifying body is investigating John Douglass Jennings Jr., who claims that many consider him "San Diego's best tax attorney."

The bar charges that Jennings cheated his client, Samuel Robinson, on several deals totaling almost $1.5 million. For example, says the bar, Robinson loaned $500,000 to Jennings on May 18, 2005: "the subscription agreement incorrectly stated that the transaction was an investment in a limited partnership when in fact that transaction was a loan," and Jennings provided no collateral for it.

Other charges are similar. Jennings also did not make full disclosure on a deal in which Robinson invested $500,000 in a Jackson Hole property, but the terms were "not fair and reasonable," says the bar.

A Reader article on December 3, 2014, revealed that Jennings and his wife Peggy are in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

In 2013, bankruptcy court judge Louise DeCarl Adler charged both Jennings and his wife with "embezzlement and/or larceny" in a transaction, "with fraudulent and/or felonious intent." Their actions were "willful and malicious," said Adler, who wrote a letter to the U.S. attorney's office about the couple's actions.

Federal court judge Roger T. Benitez, as an appeals judge, affirmed Adler's opinion and her characterization.