Former Hollywood CEO Mary Carole McDonnell joined the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list after allegedly taking nearly $30 million from California banks while living as a fugitive in Dubai.
Breitbart News reported that 75-year-old Mary Carole McDonnell, once the chief executive of Bellum Entertainment, is now on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list and faces a federal arrest warrant dating to 2018.
Authorities want her on bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges tied to an alleged scheme in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. They say she fraudulently obtained nearly $30 million from California banks and has not repaid the money.
The bureau is offering a $150,000 reward for information that leads to her arrest and conviction. Officials believe she is living in Dubai.
Bellum Entertainment shut down suddenly in 2017 after its payroll collapsed. That failure left workers scrambling and set the stage for the fraud case that followed.
Federal authorities say that between July 2017 and May 2018, McDonnell obtained $14.7 million from a bank even though she knew she was not entitled to the funds. That money, they say, still has not been repaid.
She is also accused of defrauding other financial institutions in similar fashion. Investigators say she used multiple aliases and falsely claimed she was an heiress to the McDonnell aircraft family, faking an inheritance and background to support the pitch.
A federal arrest warrant has been outstanding since 2018. She remains at large.
Former Bellum employees later described a workplace where paychecks were a race against the clock. One ex-employee told NBC News the staff would rush out as soon as checks appeared.
A former worker said:
“There would be a mad dash out the door to get them to the banks before the banks would close so you could cash them, because they would move money around.”
The same account included a blunt admission about the result.
“I had a lot of bounced checks.”
Another former employee described a constant fog of bank trouble and delayed funds.
“It was always some issue with the bank or the money that they were supposed to be getting wasn’t released to them yet, or they had to change banks, or they were getting a loan.”
Those accounts match the larger picture prosecutors and agents later outlined: money moving, checks bouncing, and institutions left holding the bag while the company came apart.
Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said agents are working beyond U.S. borders to find her.
“It’s just a matter of time before McDonnell is caught as we work with our international partners to locate her.”
Grandy also pointed to the reward and the value of a public tip, language later carried by KTLA and picked up in the Breitbart account.
“A generous reward is being offered in exchange for information leading to her apprehension and conviction, and a tip from the public might break the case.”
The FBI is urging anyone with information to contact a local FBI office, the nearest American Embassy or Consulate, call 800-CALL-FBI, or submit a tip through the bureau’s tips site.
The core of the case is straightforward. A Hollywood executive’s company collapses. Banks are allegedly drained of millions. A federal warrant issues in 2018. The suspect is placed on the Most Wanted Fraudsters list. And she is believed to be living overseas while nearly $30 million remains unpaid.
The $14.7 million figure covers the July 2017 to May 2018 window alone. The broader allegation reaches nearly $30 million across California banks and other institutions. Specific bank names, a public case number, and the exact date she was added to the Most Wanted Fraudsters list were not detailed in the available account.
What is detailed is the charge sheet in plain terms: bank fraud involving millions of dollars, aggravated identity theft, a long-running warrant, a six-figure reward, and a fugitive believed to be in Dubai.
Fraud on that scale is not a paperwork dispute. It is alleged theft from financial institutions, unpaid debt piled on collapsed payrolls, and a defendant who left U.S. process behind while workers and banks ate the losses.
When executives fake pedigrees, bounce payroll, and skip the country with a federal warrant in the rearview, the public is right to expect the FBI’s Most Wanted list, and a serious effort to bring them back.
