Judge Throws Book At Hollywood Producer, Sentences Him To Six Years In Prison For Fraud Scheme
Hollywood producer William Sadleir was sentenced six years in prison for his participation in two fraudulent schemes relating to investments made by a New York-based investment fund in Aviron Pictures, LLC and its affiliated entities,
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “William Sadleir portrayed himself as a successful Hollywood mogul, but behind the scenes, he engaged in brazen and calculated schemes to defraud a New York investment fund out of over $30 million using a fake company, fake documents, and even a fake identity.
“Sadleir went so far as to masquerade as a female advertising executive on maternity leave as part of an effort to cover up his crimes. Today’s sentence holds Sadleir accountable for his crimes, and sends a message that there will be no happy ending for executives who defraud their investors.”
DOJ Issued a statement that said:
“WILLIAM SADLEIR was the chairman and chief executive officer of Aviron, and oversaw its operations from in or about 2015 until in or about December 2019. Aviron participated in the distribution of a number of films in the United States, including My All American (2015), Kidnap (2017), The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018), A Private War (2018), Destination Wedding (2018), Serenity (2019), and After (2019).
SADLEIR engaged in two fraudulent schemes relating to an approximately $75 million investment made by the Fund in Aviron.
In one of the schemes (the “Advertising Scheme”), SADLEIR misappropriated millions of dollars that the Fund had invested in Aviron. SADLEIR represented to the Fund that Aviron had invested this money in pre-paid media credits with the advertising placement company MediaCom Worldwide (“MediaCom”), which is a subsidiary of the advertising and media agency GroupM Worldwide.
Instead, using the bank account for a sham entity he had created, SADLEIR illicitly transferred over $25 million of those funds out of Aviron.
Specifically, SADLEIR created a sham New York-based company called GroupM Media Services, LLC (the “Sham GroupM LLC”) designed to appear to be the legitimate entity, GroupM Worldwide, and a corresponding bank account in the name of that sham entity.
SADLEIR then used a significant portion of those illicitly transferred funds for his personal benefit, including to purchase a private residence in Beverly Hills for approximately $14 million. SADLEIR then falsely represented to the Fund that Aviron had purchased an approximately $27 million balance in pre-paid media credits with MediaCom that were available to promote future Aviron films, and pledged a portion of those credits to the Fund as collateral for additional loans.
But the claimed credits did not exist. As part of his false representations, SADLEIR also created a fake identity of a purported New York-based female employee of the Sham GroupM LLC named “Amanda Stevens,” who corresponded with a representative of the Fund, assuring the Fund that Aviron had an approximately $27 million balance in pre-paid media credits with the Sham GroupM LLC.
But SADLEIR himself posed as Amanda Stevens when engaging in email exchanges with a representative from the Fund, and in that role sought to evade questions about his fraudulent conduct by claiming, among other things, that “Amanda Stevens” (Sadleir) was on maternity leave.
In the other scheme (the “UCC Scheme”), SADLEIR engineered the illicit and fraudulent sale and refinancing of assets worth over $3 million that secured the Fund’s loans to Aviron.
The Fund had secured its investment in Aviron by, among other means, obtaining UCC liens in 2017 and 2018 on certain intellectual property and other assets relating to Aviron’s films. In 2019, SADLEIR used the forged signature of one of the Fund’s portfolio managers on releases to remove the Fund’s UCC liens on certain of these secured assets.
SADLEIR did so in order to sell or refinance the assets without the Fund’s consent, thus depriving the Fund of its collateral on outstanding loans. Aviron ultimately defaulted on those loans.
Prior to serving as chairman and chief executive officer of Aviron, SADLEIR held senior leadership positions at a variety of businesses, and early in his career served as a special assistant and director of presidential appointments and scheduling to a sitting U.S. president.
SADLEIR, 68, of Beverly Hills, California, pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud before Judge Engelmayer on January 20, 2022.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Engelmayer sentenced SADLEIR to three years of supervised release, and ordered SADLEIR to pay $31,597,000 in forfeiture and restitution,” DOJ said.