Fools Gold: Inside Jeff Gorells Ventura County Scheme.
- 805speakeasy
- Feb 16
- 6 min read
Updated: Feb 20
*Updated*
Supervisor Jeff Gorell, Area 2 Ventura County, is up for re-election, but conduct during his current term has left us with some serious questions.
***This story has been updated with new information that has been received.***
The Backstory
Ventura County Supervisor Jeff Gorell may have defrauded a group of business leaders and our community via something known as Gold Team. He may have done so because he wanted to use his connections to former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, for his own personal benefit. Or was it more?
In a letter dated October 9, 2025, Gorell was cited by California’s Fair Political Practice Commission (FPPC) for violating reporting rules for directed payments. FPPC acted because they were provided with information about money that was laundered between three nonprofit organizations.
The full letter may be found here. jeff-gorell-wl-202500079.pdf (SECURED)
Gold Plan – The Gorell Grift
Gorell cooked up this boondoggle back when he was in the California Assembly and revived it when he became county supervisor. Gorell purportedly established this initiative to demonstrate what he would do for the people of Ventura County. Per Gold Team’s webpage, its mission “unites elected officials, business leaders, labor representatives, utility providers, and other key stakeholders to engage CEOs and industries in relocating or expanding jobs within Ventura County.”
The only tangible metric found to date that Gold Team has accomplished was taking a delegation of business leaders that included Amgen as well as other California businesses to India in the summer of 2024. The convoy included businesses from Irvine and Santa Barbara.
Notably missing from the traveling grift were small business owners from Gorell’s district which includes amongst other towns, Thousand Oaks and parts of Camarillo. Interestingly, there were local small and medium sized businesses that were courted by Gorell but along the way he either cut them, or he failed to retain their interest.
Gold Team’s webpage is embedded into the county’s website despite having never been approved as an official initiative by the county. Gold Team uses county resources for promoting and sustaining their activities such as the county’s website hosts their webpage and Gorell’s office scheduled and sat in on Gold Team meetings. Note the prominent use of the county seal on the above launch slide. However, according to Gorell’s current chief of staff, Ashley Bautista, the Gold Team trip to India was privately funded and his office refuses to comply with simple Freedom Of Information Act requests regarding this trip.
Say what now?
On first blush, this claim seems spurious. A bit of history will help clarify a few things.
It’s important to note that Gorell served in, and is still, employed by the United States Navy. During his formative years with the Navy, he was a shipmate of none other than former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Gorell worked for Garcetti until Gorell returned to politics in Ventura County. In 2022 Garcetti was appointed as Ambassador to India.
Yes, India.
Yes, India.
The India Connection
We believe Gorell took a delegation of life sciences industry leaders to India from across California to assist them with offshoring jobs and increasing their profits in mid-2024. He and Garcetti may have been helping these businesses bypass bureaucracy in India and create a footprint there so they could move high paying technology and scientific jobs to India’s lower cost markets. A claim we can support because within weeks of the trip, Amgen released this press release about a future technology center in Hyderabad, India that would offer 3,000 jobs. Today, Amgen is hiring for technology jobs for their office in Hyderabad while laying off in the United States.
While Gorell was globetrotting around the world in 2024 supporting Amgen offshore jobs to India, he also wanted to help other companies across California do the same. We initially suspected that Gorell’s travel was funneled through one or more organizations listed on the FPPC letter. However, Gorell reported the costs on his final 460 of 2024. Curious, Women in the World Trade (WIWT) was involved in booking his trade. WIWT is an Orange County (OC) non profit that primarily focuses on foreign trade with OC businesses.
Nonetheless, FPPC’s letter revealed three Ventura County businesses – Amgen, Haas Automation and the Hogan Family Foundation.
Due to the timing of Amgen’s donation being in 2025, that may not be related to the costs of the India delegation but may have supported ongoing Gold Team activities. Or perhaps that was for something else like a thank you for snowplowing the pathway toward the opening the Hyderabad facility in February 2025. Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko can further evaluate the money exchange between Amgen and the Ventura County Community Foundation on behalf of Gorell. The Hogan Family Foundation’s money funded e-bikes for Ventura County Sheriff’s search and rescue but it is not known whether all funds were used to acquire bikes.
What Was the Goal?
Finally, the nagging questions. What was the motivation of Gorell to travel to India, and in the process lose 3,000 jobs since that’s antithetical to Gold Team’s stated mission? Was this just an all expense paid trip to see his former Navy mate? Or was Gorell looking for something else? Is Gorell friends with someone at Amgen, like he may be with the other two funding entities, one of which appears on his 2022 campaign donor list? Perhaps a little something he’s aspiring toward at Amgen when he’s done grifting off his position as supervisor?
What were the motivations of the companies who participated in Gold Team? What did they know and more importantly understand about their participation? Did they explore further opportunities with Gorell in India or elsewhere?
In the opinion of 805 Speakeasy, Gorell and Gold Team must be investigated by the District Attorney’s office. Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko’s office should be investigating whether Gorell directed any other payments, related or non-related to Gold Team, that require reporting to FPPC. They also should be evaluating the Gold Team initiative which has at minimum, improperly used tax dollars. We especially call upon those who work in life sciences to call out Gorell on moving jobs out of California and following up with the Ventura County district attorney’s office.
What You Can Do Right Now
1. Write to Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko. Demand that he immediately investigates Supervisor Gorell and Gold Team.
Email : Erik.Nasarenko@ventura.org
Sample Email:
Subject: Open an Investigation into Gold Team
Dear District Attorney Nasarenko,
Ventura County Supervisor Jeff Gorell officially launched the Gold Team in November 2023. Gold Team is not an approved county initiative, yet it has consumed county resources including Gorell’s staff and their own personal resources since 2023. The Gold Team includes a delegation of business leaders that traveled with Gorell to India in 2024. I am requesting that you thoroughly investigate Gold Team for financial and accounting practices, politically motivated dealings, and for potential misuse of taxpayer money.
Sincerely, [Your Name]
2. Write to the Acorn and the VC Star: submit a letter to the editor or ask them to cover the FPPC letter Gorell recently received and the connections between Gold Plan and that letter.
Acorn-https://www.theacorn.com/letter-to-the-editor/
Thousand Oaks Acorn- https://www.toacorn.com/letters-to-the-editor/
3. Share this information widely: Most people do not know what is happening. Gorell is up for re-election for the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in June, and if he makes it past the primary there will be a run off in November.
In Summary, based upon collaborative research, 805 Speakeasy believes that Supervisor Jeff Gorell has been:
Cited by FPPC for failure to report payments made at his request. There may be more;
Used taxpayer resources for his personal benefit;
Wasted valuable time and resources of Camarillo and Thousand Oaks small business owners who were struggling to recover from the pandemic;
Aided Amgen in moving 3,000 technology related jobs to India;
Used a personal relationship with Eric Garcetti, former Mayor of Los Angeles and current US Ambassador to India to companies across California take American jobs to India;
Delivered extraordinarily little in his four years in office for the people of Ventura County
Do your part, share this blog link, send an email to Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko, write a letter to the editor. Together we can fight for the best interests of Ventura County.
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