WILMINGTON, Del.– A 55-year-old Ocean View woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday in federal court to wire fraud and tax evasion arising from her theft of more than $1 million from Dovetail, Inc., her former employer.
Chief U.S. District Judge Colm F. Connolly for the District of Delaware accepted the plea.
According to court documents and statements made in open court, Joan Donald worked as a bookkeeper for Dovetail, a high-end interior design company based in Bethany Beach. For more than seven years, Donald perpetrated a long con against Dovetail and its owner, an elderly woman with ailing health, by using Dovetail’s funds to pay Donald’s personal credit card bills. When confronted with the fraud, Donald confessed that she had been embezzling money from Dovetail for years. A full forensic accounting conducted by the FBI revealed that Donald had stolen over $1 million.
As a result of her guilty plea, Donald faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced on Aug. 4, 2022. Sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Chief U.S. District Connolly will impose sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David C. Weiss said, “Dovetail’s story is a remarkable example of the American dream, a small business built from the ground up by a single mother of four. Month after month, year after year, however, Joan Donald breached the trust placed in her and used Dovetail as her own private ATM, effectively bankrupting the business and owner in the process. Thanks to the efforts of our law enforcement partners, Donald is now a convicted felon.”