Bookkeeper Draws 9-Year Sentence for Embezzlement

A federal court judge Wednesday sentenced an Anaheim bookkeeper to nearly nine years in prison for embezzling more than $1.8 million from Southern California businesses over 14 years.

Judge John G. Davies of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles sentenced Donald Lee Peterson to eight years and nine months for bank fraud, mail fraud, possession of counterfeit securities and conspiracy.

Peterson, 54, pleaded guilty to the charges on Dec. 16.

Davies also ordered Peterson to repay the embezzled money and spend five years on probation upon his release from prison.

According to federal prosecutors, Peterson and two accomplices victimized several small businesses in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Westminster, San Diego, Los Angeles and Santa Monica between 1980 and April, 1994, when they were arrested.

Peterson, using several aliases, answered classified ads seeking bookkeepers.

He would provide a resume, prosecutors said, but the telephone numbers he gave for references were answered by his accomplices.

“In fact, during much of the time the crimes were occurring,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement, “Peterson had million-dollar bail warrants outstanding for his arrest.”

Once hired, Peterson would get company checkbooks and cash deposits, and his accomplices would set up bank accounts under various aliases. Prosecutors said Peterson would then write checks--drawn on his employers’ accounts--payable to his partners.

Peterson typically stayed with an employer from two to six months, Carole Levitzky, of the U.S. attorney’s office, said. Once his employer got suspicious, he would call in sick and then fail to return to work, she said.

Peterson and his accomplices “would adopt new identities and move on to another target,” Levitzky said.

Prosecutors said, generally, Peterson stole between $50,000 and $100,000 from each victim, with some losing as much as $400,000.

Michael Blasi, president of Newport Equities Group in Newport Beach, said Peterson embezzled about $100,000 from his company during his few months of employment in 1991.

“The deed . . . caused tremendous financial hardship to many people,” Blasi said.

Peterson’s accomplices, Patrick Finnigan, 55, of Beaverton, Ore., and Gregory Gwynn, 41, of Los Angeles, have pleaded guilty for their roles in the fraud. Finnigan was sentenced May 15 to seven years and a month in prison but is appealing the term, Assistant U.S. Atty. Eileen Decker said.

Gwynn got a 33-month term in federal prison on May 17.

A former employer, who was present at the sentencing Wednesday and asked not to be identified, said he is “as happy as I can be [with the sentence], considering that I lost money.”

The employer, who said Peterson made off with about $300,000 from his company, has filed a civil lawsuit.

“If there is any recovery,” he said, “hopefully I’ll be first in line.”