A 53-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday and was placed on five years of formal probation for his part in the $5.2 million embezzlement from the Placentia city government.
Herbert Norris Trotter pleaded guilty to two felony counts of misappropriation or embezzlement of monies by a public officer with a sentencing enhancement for aggravated white collar crime exceeding $500,000.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer sentenced Trotter to 10 years in prison, but suspended the sentence so long as Trotter completes the terms of his probation. Trotter has credit for 204 days behind bars in the case.
As part of the plea deal, 25 other felony charges were dismissed.
Trotter’s plea deal comes more than six years after co-defendant Michael Todd McDonald of Henderson, Nevada, pleaded guilty Nov. 20, 2018, to two counts of misappropriation or embezzlement of monies by a public officer and admitted sentencing enhancements for white collar crime exceeding $500,000, according to court records.
As part of the plea deal, 59 other felony counts that also included money laundering were dismissed.
Investigators recovered all but $500,000 McDonald had a hand in stealing, a prosecutor said at the time. McDonald was ordered to pay about $1 million in restitution and a $4.6 million fine, a prosecutor said.
McDonald and Trotter helped Michael Minh Nguyen, a former financial services manager for Placentia, embezzle the money from the city.
Nguyen wired some of the money to McDonald in Las Vegas, a prosecutor said. Trotter ran the Talaton Group, which touted itself as a company that helps clients with business funding, the prosecutor said.
Nguyen pleaded guilty in March 2017 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Nguyen was fined $10.3 million and ordered to pay $2.6 million in restitution.