Sacramento CEO faces 5 years in prison for taking over $1 million from pensions

Aug. 1--A Sacramento CEO has pleaded guilty to embezzling funds from his employees' pensions, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California.

Court documents show David L. Bonuccelli, 65, was the CEO of a real estate investment consultant and advisory firm which worked with public pension funds, institutional investors, endowments and individual investors. The firm sponsored retirement benefit plans for its employees, inlcuding a pension where Bonuccelli was the sole trustee.

From 2011 to 2014, Bonuccelli made unauthorized transfers totaling $1,243,154 from the pensions account, including transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars in spending and transfers to his own retirement plan. According to court documents, Bonnuccelli invented paperwork to have documents classified as a loan and made false statements on annual forms filed with the Department of Labor about the pension plan's balance and transfers.

Bonnucelli will be sentenced on January 16 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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