He Kept More Than Books, Police Say : Crime: A Huntington Beach firm lost $44,000, but that’s a fraction of what investigators think was stolen from businesses along the West Coast.

The bookkeeper seemed almost too good to be true: He said he didn’t need health insurance. He had references and more than a decade of experience. Best of all, he was willing to work for thousands less than other job applicants.

Donald Lee Peterson was a shoo-in.

“He appeared to be the perfect employee,” said Celia Imperiale, the owner of a small manufacturing company here. “He said everything I wanted to hear.”

Three months later, the unassuming bookkeeper with the button-down collars and a battered Chevy had vanished. And so, says Imperiale, had $44,000 from the company’s accounts.

The businesswoman’s frantic call to the Huntington Beach Police Department led to Peterson’s April arrest on fraud charges--and has helped unravel what investigators describe as an elaborate scam operation that preyed on small-business owners up and down the West Coast.

Peterson, 56, is now charged with stealing $360,000 from property management firms in Santa Ana, Westminster and Santa Ana Heights, in addition to charges that he bilked the Huntington Beach firm. He also is wanted on a $1-million warrant--issued a decade ago by San Jose Police detectives who allege that Peterson stole $2 million from a dozen businesses during the early 1980s.

And detectives say they have linked Peterson to thefts from more than 20 family-owned companies from Tacoma, Wash., to National City south of San Diego. Total losses: $5 million and climbing every week, authorities say.

“He’s incredibly sophisticated,” said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe D’Agostino. “This guy is a chameleon. He knows when to move in, when to move out. This was his career. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Peterson, 56, is being held without bail at Orange County Jail. He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of theft filed in connection with the local charges.

His lawyer, Donald G. Rubright of Santa Ana, said Friday that he could not comment on the case because he didn’t have “all of the information.”

The prosecutor alleged that Peterson followed a familiar pattern to con small-business owners: Using an alias, Peterson answered newspaper employment ads and provided a false resume with fake references, and even bogus identification papers, such as driver’s licenses and Social Security cards, D’Agostino said.

Investigators said they believe that Peterson’s accomplice, a man identified by authorities as Patrick William Finnigan, posed as a previous employer to supply favorable references. (San Jose police have issued a warrant for Finnigan’s arrest.)

Once he got hired, Peterson would start writing checks to bogus bank accounts, D’Agostino said. And with the help of the accomplice, the bookkeeper allegedly withdrew the money by making almost daily ATM withdrawals. Bank records indicate that some of the stolen money went to buy gold bullions and other precious metals, the prosecutor said.

Peterson was arrested April 21 after Huntington Beach detectives had been investigating the report that the bookkeeper, using the name Michael Hammond, had stolen $44,000 from Nathan J. International Inc., Imperiale’s Huntington Beach company.

Imperiale told authorities that she had done routine background checks on the man she knew as “Hammond.” When she called his “current employer,” a young woman put her through to the supposed owner who gave “Hammond” a glowing recommendation.

Peterson joined Nathan’s 18-member staff in September. Imperiale recalled that he was punctual, brought sack lunches, and seemed very capable in balancing the company’s books. But he was not very talkative and sometimes avoided socializing with the other employees, she said.

Peterson has been described by police and victims as having distinctive physical characteristics: He is in his 50s, with thinning brown hair, stoop-shoulders from a hump on his back, a bulbous red nose, and a wart above his upper lip.

The Orange County district attorney’s complaint alleges that Peterson pocketed 90% of Nathan’s cash receipts during a three-month period.

In December, on the day Imperiale’s accountant was scheduled to arrive for a routine inspection of the firm’s books, Peterson called in sick, she said. He never showed up for work again.

After discovering $44,000 was missing, Imperiale said she hired a private investigator and eventually ended up working with Huntington Beach Police Detective Jeff Nelson.

On April 19, a Wall Street Journal article detailed the fraud investigation in Huntington Beach, prompting the owner of a Westminster property management company to call police to report that he had recently hired a bookkeeper fitting Peterson’s description.

In recent weeks, Nelson said he has been inundated with calls from investigators in Los Angeles, San Diego, National City, Santa Ana, Long Beach, Concord, San Jose and Tacoma. They say that they have been looking for the same bookkeeper, except that they know him by other names.

One investigator, Sgt. Ken Yules of the San Jose Police Department, said he has been trying to find Peterson for 10 years in connection with a dozen bookkeeper thefts involving $2 million.

Authorities said they found the suspect’s true name after matching his fingerprints to federal prison records that show that Peterson was first arrested for fraud in 1954 in Wyoming. He subsequently served federal prison terms on Terminal Island in the 1970s and 1980s.

It was there, investigators said, that Peterson met Finnigan, who also was serving time for illegal transportation of counterfeiting equipment.

Several business owners said they were gratified by Peterson’s arrest, but still want their money back. Some said that the loss almost drove them out of business.

“The misery he’s put me through, I’m lucky to still be around,” said a Newport Heights property manager who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. He said he lost nearly $300,000 to his bookkeeper from October, 1992, to March, 1993.

Both D’Agostino and Nelson said the whereabouts of Peterson’s money is a mystery.

“That tells how good he really is,” Nelson said. “Even though he’s been caught, a large part of the mystery remains unsolved.