O.C. businessman pleads guilty to embezzling almost $6M from his clients

SANTA ANA, California – An Orange County man, who ran a business in which he served as the executor of the estates of wealthy people, pleaded guilty today to embezzling nearly $6 million from his clients over a period of several years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

David Robert McDonnell, 74, of Laguna Beach, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

According to his plea agreement, from 2018 to January 2024, McDonnell ran a Laguna Beach-based company, McDonnell Business Services. Through his company, high-net-worth individuals hired McDonnell to be the 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. Instead of doing this, McDonnell liquidated the assets and diverted funds to his personal bank accounts.

McDonnell admitted in his plea agreement to misappropriating approximately $5.9 million from approximately four trusts.

For example, in August 2020, McDonnell wrote a check for $300,000 from the account of a victim trust located in Capistrano Beach to his own personal bank account. These funds were processed by Bank of America through computer servers in Texas.

United States District Judge James V. Selna scheduled a December 9 sentencing hearing, at which time McDonnell will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The FBI and the Laguna Beach Police Department are investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer L. Waier of the Santa Ana Branch Office is prosecuting this case.