A 74-year-old man from Orange County is facing 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling nearly $6 million dollars over a period of about six years, federal officials announced Monday.
David Robert McDonnell, a resident of Laguna Beach, owned and operated McDonnell Business Services, a company that served as the executor of the estates of wealthy people, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Central District of California Office stated.
Prosecutors say that between 2018 and Jan. 2024, the 74-year-old took advantage of his high net-worth clients while he had power of executor of their trusts.
“As an executor, McDonnell’s job was to manage the trusts’ assets and – when the individuals died – to sell the assets and distribute the proceeds to the trusts’ beneficiaries,” the release stated. “Instead of doing this, McDonnell liquidated the assets and diverted funds to his personal bank accounts.”
In an Aug. 2020 incident, McDonnell wrote himself a $300,000 check from a victim’s trust in Capistrano Beach. The funds, according to federal prosecutors, were processed by Bank of America through a computer server in Texas.
McDonnel pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and admitted in his plea agreement that he stole an estimated $5.9 million from approximately four trusts, the release noted.
A sentencing hearing for the 74-year-old is scheduled for Dec. 9, at which time he could be sentenced to a maximum 20-year sentence in federal prison.