HOLLYWOOD HILLS—Small-time Hollywood actor, Zachary Horwitz, 35, who pleaded guilty to operating a $690 million Ponzi scheme last October, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday, February 14. Horwitz was sentenced in a Los Angeles courtroom by United States District Judge Mark C. Scarsi and was ordered to pay $230,361,884 in restitution to his victims, the United States Department of Justice announced.
Starting in 2014, Horwitz – through his company 1in1MM Capital LLC – told investors that their money would be used to purchase film rights that would then be re-licensed to HBO and Netflix to distribute abroad. Horwitz did not have a business rapport with either company and falsely claimed to have distribution agreements with HBO and Netflix. He even fabricated fake documents and emails regarding the deals to show to investors.
“Horwitz and 1inMM promised investors returns in excess of 35%, and for many years paid supposed returns on earlier investments using funds from new investments,” The Securities and Exchange Commission reported in their investigation. He also misappropriated investor funds for his personal use, including the purchase of his $6 million Beverlywood home, trips to Las Vegas by private-jet, and to pay a celebrity interior designer, the SEC and U.S. Department of Justice reports both detailed.
In 2019, 1inMM began defaulting on its promissory notes, the scheme came to surface and Horwitz was arrested by April. He remains in outstanding default status to over two hundred investors by $230 million. His scheme put many of those investors in extreme financial hardship, some being his own friends.
Horwitz spent the past decade acting mostly in low-budget films, such as “Trespassers” and “The White Crow,” according to his IMBD profile. He also managed to secure a minor uncredited role in “Fury,” a war film starring Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf.
