Hollywood actor Zach Avery is arrested in connection with $227 million Ponzi scheme in Tinsel Town
- Actor, 34, is accused of promoting fake licensing deals with investors
- He ran a distribution company called 1inMM Capital LLC that collected the funds from investors in the alleged box office bunko, the FBI said
- He was arrested Tuesday at his luxe home in Los Angeles
- He’s been seen in movies such as The Devil Below, You’re Not Alone and Last Moment of Clarity
Actor Zach Avery has been arrested for allegedly masterminding a $690 million Hollywood Ponzi scheme in which he lied about licensing deals with Netflix and HBO to secure funding for his film distribution company.
The 34-year-old, whose real name is Zachary J. Horwitz, was arrested on Tuesday over the Ponzi scheme related to his company 1inMM Capital LLC.
He is accused of raising more than $690 million after falsely claiming to investors that he had movie licensing deals with huge companies, including HBO and Netflix.
Avery told investors they were buying film rights that would be resold to Netflix and HBO but 1inMM had no business relationship with either company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint.
He had allegedly falsely told the investors that he had successful track record of selling film rights.
The complaint says Avery had showed investors fabricated agreements and emails regarding the purported deals with HBO and Netflix.
The latest: Actor Zach Avery, 34, was arrested in Los Angeles on Tuesday in connection with a $227 million Hollywood Ponzi scheme federal investigators said he masterminded. He appeared in the 2020 movie Last Moment of Clarity
Avery and 1inMM had promised investors returns in excess of 35 percent and paid out those supposed returns on early investments by using funds from newer investments.
The SEC says Avery used the investments to fund his own lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of his $5.7 million home, $100,000 on trips to Las Vegas and a $1.8 million American Express bill.
Horwitz lied to his investors in a 2015 report – sent with a bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label scotch – claiming that his 1inMM Capital LLC owned distribution rights to 52 movies across Africa, Australia, New Zealand and South America – Verrastro told the court.
Among the films that Horwitz lied about owning the rights to include the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme action film Kickboxer, as well as The Lords of Salem, a 2012 horror movie.
Horwitz promised investors as much as a 40 percent annual return on their investments by claiming he was working on ‘strategic partnerships’ with HBO and Netflix, among others, for distribution purposes.
In front of the camera: Horwitz was seen in the 2014 movie Shifter
The actor has been featured in movies such as The Devil Below, You’re Not Alone and Last Moment of Clarity
The FBI said that Horwitz had none of the cinematic assets he’d claimed to, and used money his investors gave him to, in part, buy a six-bedroom home in the swanky Beverlywood neighborhood of Los Angeles for $6.5 million three years ago.
The FBI said that Horwitz’s company hasn’t made more than 160 payments he mapped out to investors, with the Chicago firm JJMT Capital, LLC owed $160 million in its principal loan and another $59 million in promised profits.
Horwitz was taken into custody early Tuesday at his home, where FBI agents went through the property for evidence of crimes such as securities and mail fraud and money laundering.
In a hearing from downtown Los Angeles Tuesday, Horwitz told the presiding judge that he understood the charges against him. The judge agreed on a $1 million secured bond for Horwitz’s release until future court proceedings.
Advertisement
