Zachary J. Horwitz has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for running a massive Ponzi scheme. Image Source: VICE

An aspiring actor, Zachary J. Horwitz has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for running a massive Ponzi scheme and managing to raise about $650million from more than 250 investors as a part of phony Hollywood film licensing deals.

According to the reports by Justice Department, Zachary Horwitz whose stage name is Zachary Avery and has appeared in movies such as ‘Fury’, “Horwitz portrayed himself as a Hollywood success story...He branded himself as an industry player, who… 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 raised about $650million 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.”

The actor plead guilty in October to a federal securities fraud charge and admitted to running the Ponzi scheme and is ordered to pay $230 million in restitution. He admitted in court that he duped more than 250 investors that included three of his college friends and their relatives to fuel his opulent lifestyle. According to reports, the Ponzi scheme scam started in 2014 to 2019, where Zachary Avery falsely claimed to the investors that the money would be used to buy distribution rights to movies that would be then licensed for distribution to streaming platforms including Netflix and HBO.

But the actor used the money he collected to repay his earlier investors in what people call a perfect and classic Ponzi scheme along with supporting his luxurious lifestyle including a $6 million house. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced last April with a press release that they obtained an asset freeze against Zachary Horwitz and his company. According to their complaint, the actor allegedly, "fabricated email communications with representatives of HBO as well as false collections accounts allegedly showing funds available from HBO and Netflix for distribution."

Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Los Angeles Regional Office, Michele Wein Layne said, "We allege that Horwitz promised extremely high returns and made them seem plausible by invoking the names of two well-known entertainment companies and fabricating documents. We obtained an asset freeze on an emergency basis to secure for the benefit of investors what remains of the money raised by Horwitz."

Zachary Avery has scammed about more than 250 investors. Image Source: Occhi Magazine 

The aspiring actor was initially arrested on April 6th, 2021 on an initial fraud charge and spent more than two weeks in jail before he was released on a $1million bond. He was indicted in May on five counts of securities fraud, six counts of wire fraud, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. The representatives of streaming platforms Netflix and HBO denied their engagement or involvement with the actor or his company.

According to the FBI, Zachary founded his Los Angeles-based 1inMM Capital LLC in 2013 and claimed to distribute English films to the Latin American market through partnerships with HBO and Netflix. In 2015, the actor allegedly sent his investors bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label scotch, along with an annual report that said that the company had, "acquired and successfully distributed 49 films through the 1inMM Capital banner without incurring a single loss in the process." The annual report that he sent out to his investors said, "With this growth, we have the ability to safely and profitably distribute more than 25 additional films per year, creating ample opportunity for investment and substantial growth of our thriving feature film library.”