Law & Crime report..
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced that agents with the FBI arrested a 34-year-old Los Angeles actor on charges that he oversaw a Ponzi scheme that swindled investors out of approximately $227 million.
Zachary Joseph Horwitz, who also uses the stage name “Zach Avery,” allegedly bilked investors out of their funds by promising the money would be used to purchase the licensing rights to movies that already had distribution agreements with streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO, particularly in Latin American countries.
According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for California’s Central District, Horwitz began soliciting funds from potential investors for his company, 1inMM Capital LLC, in 2015. In describing the business model, Horwitz allegedly claimed the company would put the money towards purchasing regional distribution rights to films and then license the rights to online platforms. Promotional materials for 1inMM created by Horwitz and distributed to potential investors proclaimed that the investment would be “safe” because the company said it received “confirmation from each of our outputs indicating their desire to acquire the rights to any title we purchase PRIOR to us releasing funds for the film,” the feds said.
But prosecutors claimed that Horwitz didn’t actually use the money to purchase rights and secure distribution deals, and instead paid out his initial investors with funds from later investors while using the bulk of the money to fund his lavish lifestyle, which included buying a home in Beverlywood for $6 million.
Read more at https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/small-time-hollywood-actor-charged-with-running-big-time-ponzi-scheme/
