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Demographics
Type: Public Official
Status: Active
Employment Background
Robert "Bob" Venchiarutti is Deputy Commissioner for Money Transmission at the Department of Business Oversight (DBO), a position he has held for roughly a decade and a half. He reports to Commissioner Jan Lynn Owen. A former litigator who left private practice immediately after settling a legal malpractice lawsuit, Venchiarutti enforces the California Money Transmission Act, a law that he helped write at the request of Ezra Levine, chief lobbyist for The Money Services Round Table, a lobbying group comprised of American Express, Western Union, MoneyGram, Travelex, and RIA Financial Services.
Venchiarutti's role can effectively be summarized as that of Levine's "inside man." Though Levine frequently converses with both Owen and Venchiarutti, Venchiarutti has the authority to block the money transmission license applications of those companies that might pose a competitive threat to any Money Services Round Table business, which one of several reasons why a federal lawsuit has been pending against Mr. Venchiarutti for roughly three years, since 2011.
Within the DBO, Venchiarutti is known for his temper, which was a signficant factor in the "pre-filing interview" his department requires that led to the FaceCash lawsuit. In the First Amended Complaint, the lawsuit alleges that Venchiarutti threatened to put an entrepreneur in jail simply for asking the wrong questions about the then-recently enacted Money Transmission Act.
According to the lawsuit, Robert Venchiarutti has also been documented as threatening the staff of California legislators. This is consistent with his generally arbitrary enforcement of the laws he helped write.
Bob Venchiarutti has left a trail of interesting litigation throughout his career in government. In 2009, Bob was also sued by one of his subordinates for creating a "hostile work environment," along with Julio Prada, his allegedly racist sidekick in the Money Transmission division. The case resulted in a settlement in 2011 in which the Department of Financial Institutions paid Venchiarutti's subordinate $27,000.00, so long as he agreed never to attempt to work in the DFI money transmission division ever again.
Mr. Venchiarutti was paid a salary of $102,551.64 in 2013 by the State of California, a raise from $101,003.64 in 2012, and $94,776.00 in 2011.
In his spare time, Mr. Venchiarutti enjoys spending time with lobbyists and executives of companies he should be regulating at the Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs, California.
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