LAGUNA BEACH A 34-year-old woman who said she was an accountant with a degree from Pepperdine University is accused of embezzling $1.5 million from five Orange County businesses and using the money for plastic surgery, renovating a Laguna Beach rental home and buying cattle and horse equipment, police said this week.

On Monday, June 12, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Mulder, who authorities said actually worked for a soil and fertilizer company and took some community college accounting classes, will appear before Judge David Carter in U.S. Federal Court in Santa Ana and plead guilty, her attorney, Kate Corrigan, said on Friday.

“She wanted to have an early resolution,” Corrigan said. “She’s got a family and regrets what happened here.”

Mulder signed a plea settlement on May 15 with the U.S. Attorney’s Office as part of a deal to get a reduced sentence, according to federal court documents. She is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 1, and faces imprisonment of up to 23 years, according to a Laguna Beach police statement.

Mulder, who listed herself as president of Mulder Financial Consulting, is charged with multiple federal offenses tied to identity theft, tax fraud and embezzlement, according to federal court documents.

“The defendant used the money obtained from her fraudulent scheme for a variety of personal and luxury expenses, including a rental home in Laguna Beach, cosmetic surgery, personal vacations, living expenses, horse rentals and the purchase of horse equipment,” the plea agreement says.

Jordan Mirakian, a Laguna Beach police detective, led the year-plus investigation and said Mulder deceived clients into making checks payable to a phony business she created, “Income Tax Payments,” under the guise that those payments would satisfy the clients’ outstanding IRS tax obligations.

She also created false personas as representatives and investors of companies to lead her clients to believe various expenses were being paid for their business, Mirakian said.

“(The victims) were entrepreneurial women with small businesses,” Mirakian said. “All had young children like she did. That’s how she earned their trust. She held parties, dinners and in one case went to a wedding in Italy with the owner of (one of the businesses).”

The investigation into the case began in January 2016 when Jay Avery, owner of JAC Wines, went to Laguna Beach police after he realized more than $200,000 was missing from his business, Mirakian said. Avery told him that Mulder had started working for him in 2009.

By 2013, Avery became unable to manage the day-to-day financial operations of JAC Wines because of serious personal and medical hardships.

Mirakian saw that Mulder had control of the JAC Wines accounts. He went over the wine business checks with Avery to see if he had authorized them. Then police executed search warrants on Avery’s and Mulder’s bank statements.

Mirakian said Mulder was paying herself with money she told Avery he needed to pay to other companies.

“In total, Mulder converted approximately $185,504.11 from JAC Wines for her own use by paying checks from JAC Wines to the Mulder Financial Account,” federal court records say.

Over the next six months, Mirakian found that Mulder was also taking money from other clients, including Toni & Guy Hair Salon in Newport Beach, Kurtz-Ahlers in San Juan Capistrano, Bella Pilates in San Clemente, Andra Builders Inc in Costa Mesa, and California Print 2 Copy in Irvine, the detective said.

“As victims asked questions, she took money from one business and put it into another like a Ponzi scheme,” Mirakian added.