An L.A. actor who raised $650 million in bogus licensing deals with HBO and Netflix orchestrated an elaborate Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
In addition to jail time, US District Judge Mark C. Scarsey on Monday ordered 35-year-old Zachary Joseph Horwitz to pay nearly $230 million in restitution to more than 250 investors who bankrolled his business venture 1inMM Capital .
Prosecutors said Horwitz would use loans from one group of investors to repay others, while taking millions of dollars to pay for his lavish lifestyle.
Some of his splurges include $700,000 for a celebrity interior designer remodeling his $5.7 million home in Beverlywood, Calif.
Horwitz relied on his personal relationships and "word-of-mouth" referrals to secure investors and told them he had experience in the media content distribution industry.
"Defendant Zachary Horwitz portrays himself as a Hollywood success story," prosecutors said in a court affidavit. "He branded himself as an industry player who, through his company ... leveraged his relationships with online streaming platforms such as HBO and Netflix to sell foreign film distribution rights at a steady premium ... but , as his victims found out, [Horvitz] was not a successful businessman or Hollywood insider. He just played one in real life."
A federal grand jury in May 2021 indicted Horwitz on five counts of securities fraud, six counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
According to court documents, Horwitz used some of the money to finance low-budget films, including "Gateway" and "The White Crow."
From March 2014 to December 2019, Thief raised millions of dollars from investors and promised them that he was using his money to buy the licensing rights to hundreds of movies that were broadcast on HBO, Netflix and other platforms overseas, primarily Will be sold again in Latin America. , prosecutors said.
According to the criminal complaint, "Horvitz showed investors a number of forged documents, including several fictitious film distribution agreements, to substantiate his claimed deals with HBO and Netflix."
As of 2019, 1inMM Capital started defaulting on its outstanding promissory notes, which guarantee repayment on a specified maturity date. Investors were told that they would get 25 to 45 percent return on their investment.
When investors began to complain, prosecutors said that Horwitz used the names of real HBO and Netflix employees to send bogus emails and text messages to assure investors that their payments would be made as they went through distribution deals. Were "on lack" to close.