A former television financial analyst who was accused of defrauding investors out of millions of dollars and spent years on the run has been sentenced to five years in prison, according to the Justice Department on Monday.

James Arthur McDonald Jr., aged 53, is also expected to be required to pay restitution to his victims following his guilty plea for securities fraud on April 7.

“To his victims, [McDonald] seemed to embody the American Dream,” prosecutors stated in a sentencing memorandum. “However, appearances can be misleading, and [McDonald’s] victims discovered that their trust had been violated.”

James McDonald allegedly took steps to disappear prior to going on the run, authorities said. (FBI)

“He misappropriated most of those funds in various ways, including spending $174,610 at a Porsche dealership and transferring $109,512 to the landlord of a home McDonald had been renting in Arcadia,” as mentioned by the Justice Department.

In total, McDonald lost around $3 million of his clients’ money, prosecutors said. 

With another of his companies, McDonald allegedly provided clients with “false account statements, including one client who invested approximately $351,000, later needed the money to put a down payment on a home, was informed by McDonald that a significant portion of the money had been lost, and never received his full investment back.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reported that McDonald “raised over $5.1 million from 23 investors and clients, misappropriating more than $2.9 million for personal expenses and Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors.”

A federal arrest warrant was issued for McDonald in 2022 after he was charged with securities fraud.