The FBI is offering up to $150,000 to find a former true-crime television producer accused of using a fictional $80 million inheritance to obtain nearly $30 million from California banks.
Mary Carole McDonnell, the former chief executive of Burbank-based Bellum Entertainment, helped produce and distribute programs including It Takes a Killer, Corrupt Crimes and I Married a Murderer. Federal prosecutors say she used a claimed connection to the McDonnell aerospace fortune to obtain financing while her television company was struggling to pay employees.
The FBI added McDonnell to its newly established Most Wanted Fraudsters list on October 14, 2026. She has been wanted on federal bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges since December 2018, and investigators believe she may be in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She has not been arrested or tried in that criminal case.
Records from a separate federal lawsuit show that Banc of California’s risk officers recommended against a $15 million loan to McDonnell before it was approved. A separate December 2018 court filing said investigators believed McDonnell had been living in Dubai since May of that year.
True-Crime TV Workers Went Unpaid as Bellum’s Finances Unraveled
By mid-2017, Bellum Entertainment was struggling with payroll and mounting debt. Creditors were suing over unpaid obligations, and the company had difficulty paying people who worked on its television productions.
McDonnell told employees in June 2017 that Bellum had been affected by bank fraud and that financing was expected to resolve its cash problems. Business Insider, which reviewed court records and interviewed former workers, reported that paychecks were frequently delayed or bounced. Some workers were still owed thousands of dollars years later.
Nearly 50 workers filed wage claims with California labor authorities, according to the investigation. McDonnell’s nephew Peter, who had served as a company vice president, told the publication that he eventually stopped believing her explanations for the delayed payments. The federal indictment also describes payroll problems and lawsuits over debts exceeding $1 million.
McDonnell Allegedly Invented an $80 Million Aerospace Inheritance
Prosecutors allege that McDonnell claimed to be related to the founders of McDonnell Douglas, the aerospace company that merged with Boeing in 1997. She told banking representatives that she was entitled to an $80 million distribution from a family trust and could use that wealth to support a major loan.
The purported inheritance was presented as money that would become available later, while financial documents represented that she already had valuable trust assets. Investigators contend that the promised fortune did not exist and that her supposed family connection was false.
Business Insider traced her family’s history to Kirkwood, Missouri, where her parents operated a neighborhood grocery business. Its investigation found no evidence that she belonged to the family behind the aerospace manufacturer.
Purported $28.6 Million Trust Account Helped Secure a $15 Million Loan
McDonnell submitted a loan application and personal financial statement to Banc of California in December 2017. The federal indictment says she subsequently supplied a purported trust account statement showing a balance of $28,624,549.20, followed by letters and loan documents meant to establish that the money could secure the financing.
One document was a bank account control agreement supposedly signed by an employee of the trust company. Prosecutors allege that McDonnell persuaded a notary to notarize the agreement without that employee being present and that the paperwork bore signatures the employee had not authorized.
When the trust company received inquiries from the bank, McDonnell allegedly told one of its employees not to respond, falsely asserting that the lender already knew she had no account there. The indictment identifies five separate document submissions between December 21, 2017, and February 1, 2018, as the acts underlying its bank fraud counts.
Bank Risk Officers Warned Against the Loan, but the Money Went Out
An August 2023 federal court opinion from litigation between Banc of California and its insurer reveals how the lender handled the application. Banc’s chief risk officer and Bank Secrecy Act department both recommended against lending to McDonnell. The head of commercial banking nevertheless supported moving forward after reviewing the concerns.
The proposed loan was supposed to be fully secured by cash. Bank personnel questioned whether an interest in a purported account at another institution satisfied that requirement, and Banc could not independently reach the trust company executive who supposedly authorized the collateral. Two letters attributed to that executive closely matched language McDonnell had previously emailed to bank personnel.
Banc issued the $15 million loan effective February 1, 2018. The court opinion says McDonnell transferred $5 million to herself the following day and that roughly half the proceeds had left the bank by February 8. More transfers followed, with the remaining funds disbursed by March 5.
On March 9, a fraud examiner at Northern Trust informed Banc that McDonnell had no interest in the account presented as collateral. The account belonged to an unrelated person named McDonald and had been closed in December 2017. Banc declared the loan in default on March 13.
The 2023 case concerned whether the bank’s insurance policy covered the loss, not McDonnell’s criminal guilt. The judge denied Banc’s summary judgment request after finding unresolved factual questions about the bank’s good faith and what caused the loss.
FBI Puts Alleged Bank Losses at Nearly $30 Million
The FBI alleges that McDonnell fraudulently obtained approximately $14.7 million from Banc of California and failed to repay the money. The federal indictment says some of the proceeds went toward Bellum’s payroll and creditors, although it does not provide a complete accounting of the spending.
According to the bureau’s wanted notice, other financial institutions suffered more than $15 million in additional estimated losses through similar alleged conduct. Those figures put the suspected banking scheme at roughly $30 million, but the December 2018 indictment concerns the Banc transaction rather than every loss cited by the FBI.
Banc pursued civil recovery and obtained a judgment exceeding $17 million in 2021, according to Business Insider’s review of the litigation. The 2023 federal opinion said Banc had been unable to recover on that judgment at the time. The civil award is a recovery claim related to the loan, not a separate $17 million to add to the FBI’s estimated losses.
A Separate $2.5 Million Loan Led to a $4.46 Million Civil Judgment
Another case involved Theodore and Carrie Kuhlman of Ohio, who lent McDonnell $2.5 million in January 2016 under a promissory note purportedly backed by assets of a valuable family trust. The agreement provided for $750,000 in interest, and a later extension added another $750,000.
After receiving only $280,000 in repayments, the Kuhlmans sued. On February 10, 2022, a federal judge in the Southern District of Ohio entered a default judgment of $4,465,255.38 against McDonnell, including principal, contractual interest, prejudgment interest, fees and costs.
The judge granted judgment on the breach-of-promissory-note claim without deciding the plaintiffs’ other fraud theories. The court denied without prejudice their separate request for a judgment against Bellum Entertainment. That civil award involves an earlier personal loan, not an additional banking loss included in the FBI’s approximately $30 million estimate.
Federal Indictment Lists Five Bank Fraud Counts and Two Identity Theft Counts
A federal grand jury charged McDonnell in the Central District of California in case 8:18-cr-00255-JVS. The seven-page indictment, filed December 12, 2018, contains five counts of bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1344 and two counts of aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A.
The bank fraud allegations cover specific financial statements, trust letters and loan documents submitted between December 2017 and February 2018. The identity theft charges concern the alleged unauthorized use of another person’s name and signature in connection with the purported trust paperwork.
Each federal bank fraud count carries a maximum possible sentence of 30 years in prison. Aggravated identity theft can require an additional two-year prison term when tied to qualifying crimes. These are statutory penalties, not sentences imposed on McDonnell, who has not been convicted in the federal criminal case.
A 2018 Prosecutor’s Filing Already Placed McDonnell in Dubai
In a sworn declaration dated December 12, 2018, Assistant U.S. Attorney Vibhav Mittal said investigators understood that McDonnell had been living in Dubai since approximately May 5 of that year. An FBI case agent reported that she was due to return to the United States on June 5 but did not.
Mittal asked the court to seal the indictment and related documents because making them public before McDonnell’s apprehension could jeopardize efforts to locate her. He also sought permission to share the materials with foreign law enforcement for possible arrest or extradition proceedings. A federal magistrate judge approved the sealing request, except for the arrest warrant.
The filing shows that Dubai was already a focus of the investigation in 2018. It records what prosecutors understood at the time, rather than independent proof of her current whereabouts.
FBI Offers Up to $150,000 as the Search Continues
McDonnell appeared on an FBI wanted list in December 2025 and was featured on the bureau’s newly established Most Wanted Fraudsters list on October 14, 2026. Federal investigators continue to believe she may be in Dubai, although her location has not been confirmed.
The FBI lists several aliases, including Mary Carole Carroll, Mary Carol McDonnell, Mary Carroll McDonnell, Mary C. Carroll and Mary Carroll McDonald. Its wanted notice includes a photograph taken in 2018 and identifies ties to Los Angeles, Montgomery, Alabama, and Dubai.
The bureau is offering up to $150,000 for information leading to McDonnell’s arrest and conviction. Anyone with information can call 1-800-225-5324, contact a local FBI office or the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, or submit a confidential tip through tips.fbi.gov.