A man who embezzled more than $36 million from a Los Angeles company was sentenced Thursday to 10 1/2 years in federal prison and ordered to repay the money.
Paul McDaniel, 44, used most of the funds he embezzled to pay off $23 million in credit card debt, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
McDaniel embezzled the funds over more than seven years while working as accounting manager for Hypermedia Systems Inc., a media technology services firm based in downtown L.A., prosecutors said.
McDaniel obtained the money by creating and approving false vendor invoices from a Nevada corporation he created, and the money went into a bank account he controlled, authorities said.
McDaniel fled to Costa Rica, where he was arrested in 2017. He was extradited to the United States in 2019 and pleaded guilty that year to one count of wire fraud.