“She gave the appearance that she was a very independently wealthy woman,” Joshua Koffmann, one of her former employees, told KTLA 5, adding that she “was always impeccably dressed”.
Suspicions about McDonnell were first raised in 2017, after Deadline reported that the California Labour Commission was looking into Bellum for failing to pay wages to dozens of former workers.
FBI wanted poster.Credit: via FBI
Chacon said he was making “very good money” for a year, but then pay cheques began to take weeks to arrive, forcing members of the crew to breaking point.
He eventually parted ways with the company in mid-2017 and says he was still owed $US36,000 ($54,000).
Around the same time, McDonnell secured a $US14.7 million ($22 million) loan from California-based banks by claiming to be a member of the McDonnell aviation dynasty with an $US80 million secret trust fund she would be able to access.
“Beginning in approximately July 2017 and continuing to May of 2018, McDonnell is alleged to have knowingly, and with intent to defraud, devised and participated in a scheme to obtain money, funds, assets and property owned by Banc of California,” the FBI alleged.
The Michigan-native used similar tactics to steal an estimated $US15 million from other financial institutions, according to federal investigators.
In December 2018, a federal arrest warrant was issued for her after a grand jury indicted her on charges of fraud and identity theft.
Even family members were exposed to her alleged crimes. Peter McDonnell, her nephew, worked at Bellum Entertainment and is reportedly owed thousands of dollars.
“We all thought something strange was going on, and then one day, she was just gone,” Chacon said.
McDonnell is thought to have travelled to London before making her way to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and applying to extend her visa in 2019. UAE immigration authorities were approached for comment.
After she disappeared, an online community of disgruntled former employees who claimed to be owed money by McDonnell began to form, sharing rumours about her whereabouts, much like the true crime investigators from her TV shows.
After 27 years in the FBI, Chacon said he was not surprised by the extent of the producer’s alleged crimes but said there was no reason to suspect her when they first met.
“At the foundation, it was a legitimate business,” he said. “But over time, she was building this house of cards that ultimately collapsed, and she was not going to be around when that happened.”
The Telegraph, London
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