LOS ANGELES, CA — A 73-year-old woman accused of posing as a wealthy heiress and defrauding major financial institutions out of nearly $30 million is being sought by federal authorities. The FBI says Mary Carole McDonnell, originally from Michigan but long associated with Los Angeles, claimed to be an heir to the McDonnell Aircraft fortune and invented a secret $80 million trust to deceive banks.
Federal investigators allege that between July 2017 and May 2018, McDonnell executed a scheme targeting Banc of California, fraudulently obtaining $14.7 million. The FBI reports she used similar tactics to secure an additional $15 million from multiple other institutions, bringing the total to roughly $30 million.
McDonnell previously served as CEO of Bellum Entertainment LLC, a Burbank production company behind true-crime television programs. During her tenure, the company faced scrutiny from the California Labor Commission over unpaid wages, which McDonnell allegedly blamed on “significant bank fraud,” according to former employees cited in Deadline. One of them, her nephew Peter McDonnell, said he was unaware of the scheme and was owed more than $10,000 when he left the company in 2017…