True Crime Producer Added to FBI's Most Wanted List

What happens when someone who has established themselves as a chronicler of various real-life criminal cases finds themselves on the wrong side of the law? No, this isn’t the premise of the most meta true crime podcast ever; instead, it’s a reasonably accurate description of the situation the latest addition to the FBI’s Most Wanted List finds themselves in.

The person in question is Mary Carole McDonnell (not to be confused with the actor of the same name, who appeared in the likes of Battlestar Galactica and Dances With Wolves), and the FBI describes her as the CEO of Bellum Entertainment LLC. That company produced several television shows in the 2010s, including true crime and food-centric programs.

The FBI poster for Mary Carole McDonnell

Courtesy of the FBI

One of the first signs that something was amiss with the company came in 2017. That’s when Deadline reported that several of the experts who worked on the production company’s shows had halted all work with the company due to them being owed $50,000 in back pay. They were not the only ones; Deadline also reported that Bellum employees were behind on their pay, and that the U.S. Department of Labor was investigating.

Things got worse from there. The Guardian‘s Roque Planas points to the case of Nigel Bellis, who worked as a showrunner on several Bellum productions. A court ruled that McDonnell owes him a combination of back pay and damages that total $500,000; he has not seen any of it.

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The FBI has accused McDonnell of bank fraud, pointing to over $14 million that she obtained from Banc of California, as well as $15 million from other banks. The agency believes that she is currently living in Dubai, which seems to be becoming a destination for people with, shall we say, unseemly backgrounds. McDonnell faces charges of both bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…