Financial advisor with prior rap sheet charged with child sex abuse

A financial advisor who had been slated to drop his sex offender status next year is now facing new charges of child sex abuse and indecent assault.

Authorities arrested SA Stone Wealth Management representative Gregory Frank Estes on Jan. 19 on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child by contact, according to the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office in San Angelo, Texas.

Two of the four new felony counts against Estes, 56, stem from alleged incidents in 2004 and 2009, court records in nearby Taylor County show. In those years, he was on probation from an earlier conviction in 2002 on a charge of attempt to commit sexual assault, according to the state Department of Public Safety. The other two counts of each charge relate to a 2001 incident, the court records show.

The indictments in the new case weren’t immediately available online, though the charges and dates are public. The available records present a troubling picture of an advisor with a criminal and regulatory rap sheet, even before taking into account the new allegations.

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Estes affiliated with SA Stone Wealth Management in 2012, FINRA BrokerCheck records show. The Birmingham, Alabama-based independent broker-dealer previously known as Sterne Agee is owned by global financial services firm StoneX, formerly INTL FCStone. Estes has worked in financial services for 25 years with five different firms, including one that discharged him in 2006 for allegedly failing to follow heightened supervision procedures.

Estes didn’t return a phone message left with staff at his San Angelo-based practice, Greg Estes Investments. The local court records didn’t list any attorneys representing him.

He had been on probation for 10 years following the 2002 conviction, with a “moderate” risk level and an expected end to his sex offender registration in September 2022, according to the Texas Public Sex Offender Registry. The earlier victim was a 31-year-old woman, the site says.

“This matter was blown out of proportion,” Estes wrote on his BrokerCheck record in response to the earlier allegations. “Instead of defending a long drawn out appeals process, I accepted probation and a fine.”

Representatives for SA Stone didn’t return phone calls and emails seeking comment, updates on his employment status, and the company’s explanation for how Estes was able to register with the firm despite his prior criminal history.

Tom Green County (Tx.) Sheriff's Office

Sheriff’s deputies in Estes’ home county released him on a $415,000 bond roughly three hours after his Jan. 19 booking on the child sex assault case, according to the sheriff’s office’s website. Two days later, they booked him on the indecent assault charge and released him after he posted a bond of $5,000, the website shows.

Authorities in Taylor County had filed the case alleging four felony counts of child sex crimes on Jan. 14. Six days later, they filed the Class A misdemeanor charge of indecent assault in connection with a June 2020 incident, records show.

Criminal District Attorney James Hicks didn’t immediately respond to a phone call seeking further documentation in the cases. A staff member in the District Clerk’s office said indictments are only available in person or through mailed requests. Representatives for the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to requests for further documentation.

The child sex assault charges allegedly involve a victim who was younger than 14 years old, according to court records reviewed by the San Angelo Standard-Times. The alleged victim in the June 17 incident purportedly told investigators that Estes made inappropriate comments and touched her repeatedly despite her attempt to move his hand away, according to the documents cited in the local paper.

In addition to the earlier conviction in Estes’ home county, he had three other felony charges of attempt to commit sexual assault that were later dismissed between 2001 and 2005, according to Tom Green County court records. Authorities in Taylor County also dismissed a January 2013 charge against Estes of continuous sexual abuse of a child, court records show.

The state Commissioner of Insurance’s office suspended Estes in 2003 based on the prior felony conviction, though it allowed him his license back when he agreed to comply with “certain restrictions and conditions,” according to BrokerCheck. In May 2016, a client won a settlement of $95,000 after alleging in state court that Estes breached fiduciary duty, BrokerCheck shows.

In his comment about the matter, Estes said he denied the allegations and agreed to settle the case to “avoid additional expense and time.”

The firm that discharged Estes in 2006 for allegedly not following heightened supervision procedures, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Synergy Investment Group, had “unfortunately” terminated him “without full investigation and due process of the facts,” Estes said on BrokerCheck. He affiliated with the same firm four years later for two more years before moving to SA Stone. Synergy is no longer registered with FINRA and its phone number is out of service.