Hollywood actor Zachary Horwitz sentenced to 20 years for multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme
Also: L.A. Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for $650 Million Ponzi Scheme that Falsely Claimed to License Foreign Film Rights (U.S. Attorney's Office - Central District of California)
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Source: CNN
Hollywood actor sentenced to 20 years for multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme
By Rob McLean, CNN Business
Updated 1833 GMT (0233 HKT) February 15, 2022
New York (CNN Business) — Zachary Horwitz, a small-time actor who admitted to operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Monday.
The Department of Justice said in a news release that Horowitz "raised at least $650 million with bogus claims that investor money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films that HBO and Netflix purportedly had agreed to distribute abroad."
HBO, like CNN, is part of WarnerMedia.
In October, Horowitz pleaded guilty to a federal securities fraud charge and admitted to running the Ponzi scheme.
He received a 240 month sentence, according to Monday's release, and must pay more than $230 million in restitution. CNN has reached out to Horwitz's attorney for comment.
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Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/14/media/ponzi-scheme-zachary-horwitz-sentenced/index.html
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Source: U.S. Attorney's Office - Central District of California
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 14, 2022
L.A. Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for $650 Million Ponzi Scheme that Falsely Claimed to License Foreign Film Rights
LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles man was sentenced today to 240 months in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that raised at least $650 million with bogus claims that investor money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films that HBO and Netflix purportedly had agreed to distribute abroad.
Zachary Joseph Horwitz, 35, of the Beverlywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, was sentenced by United States District Judge Mark C. Scarsi, who also ordered Horwitz to pay $230,361,884 in restitution to his victims. Horwitz pleaded guilty in October 2021 to one count of securities fraud.
“Defendant Zachary Horwitz portrayed himself as a Hollywood success story,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “He branded himself as an industry player, who, through his company…leveraged his relationships with online streaming platforms like HBO and Netflix to sell them foreign film distribution rights at a steady premium…But, as his victims came to learn, [Horwitz] was not a successful businessman or Hollywood insider. He just played one in real life.”
For more than five years, Horwitz raised millions of dollars from investors, many of whom were personal friends, based on false claims that their money would be used to acquire film distribution rights, which then would be profitably licensed to online platforms such as Netflix and HBO.
But the whole business was a lie. In reality, Horwitz’s company neither acquired film rights nor entered into any distribution agreements with HBO or Netflix. The purported copies of film licensing agreements and distribution agreements were fake.
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Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/la-man-sentenced-20-years-federal-prison-650-million-ponzi-scheme-falsely-claimed
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