All language subtitles for American Greed s15e15 Streaming and Screaming

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In this episode of American Greed, a
struggling actor with a side hustle

millions. This one is tragic because it
started off as imaginary and continued

imaginary and then grew so large.

Zach Horowitz moves from Indiana to
Hollywood.

I'm good enough. I can do this.

Takes the stage name Zach Avery.

and dazzles his friends back home. You
believe that he was a big -time player

L .A.? He was great.

You go out, he's buying all the drinks,
he's got the good place for it to go.

There's a phrase, acting is like lying.

But for Horowitz, lying is like acting.

As an actor, I feel like you don't want
people to know who Zach is as a person.

Because Horwich's most convincing
performance isn't on screen, it's in

life, scamming his longtime friends.

I would just love to know what his
endgame was with this, and does he feel

remorse? His pretentious podcasts play
different now.

Playing that dynamic between the good
guy and the bad guy and how I can work

through those nuances was really fun.

It's Hollywood's biggest Ponzi scheme
with a warning.

Be careful who you trust.

These are his alleged best friends and
he just took all their money.

I couldn't believe it.

In 2019, the relatively unknown actor
Zach Avery is finally getting somewhere.

He's landed a starring role with Olivia
Munn in a film called The Gateway.

In the movie, Avery, real name Zach
Horwitz, plays a hardened criminal.

Ironically, at the very moment he shoots
this scene walking a cell block in a

jail, Horwitz is a real -life criminal
mastermind.

running an investment scheme built on
100 % lies.

It was clear from the beginning that it
was just fake from the get -go.

Zach Horwitz has talent.

He's a world -class liar with charm that
he lays on thick for anyone with a

microphone and camera.

Knowing what you know now, what would
you tell your 14 -year -old self?

Ooh, that's a tough one.

I would tell him that...

Everything happens for a reason. That
you're going to go through trials and

tribulations, but they will all teach
you something along the way that you'll

use in the future, and you'll be all
right, kid. Don't worry about it.

Like many Hollywood stories, this one
begins in the heartland.

In this case, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

It's modest, humble, and the resting
place of American icon Johnny Appleseed.

You couldn't get more all -American if
you tried.

Zach and I lived in a nice neighborhood.
He lived in the very nice part, like

probably a fairly brand -new house.

Derek McCurr is one of Zach Horowitz's
high school friends.

Horowitz moves to Fort Wayne for his
sophomore year after a childhood spent

Florida. We met at football our
sophomore year and almost instantly

friends.

Chris Krebs is another high school
friend.

He and others say Zach's family is well
off.

His stepfather is an executive at a
computer components factory.

They certainly weren't struggling. They
had a really nice lake house in addition

to their main residence.

According to friends, Zach Horwitz is a
popular student at Fort Wayne Carroll

High School.

He was athletic, played sports.

Girls liked him quite a bit. He was just
a good guy, a fun guy to be around.

In his senior yearbook, Zach is
nominated for Homecoming King, awarded

Body, and is a member of the school's
Academy of Finance.

The yearbook page of the club, in a You
Can't Make This Up twist, is titled Fun

with Future Finances.

It's just surreal.

How did this guy from Fort Wayne,
Indiana, run a $690 million Ponzi scheme

zero financial background?

After graduating high school in 2005,
Zach attends Indiana University in

downstate Bloomington.

While most of his friends attend IU's
acclaimed Kelly School of Business, Zach

goes a different route and majors in
psychology.

Friends say Horowitz is a great guy to
be pals with, especially on spring

You know, the classic, like, you throw a
football in the sand and bounce it

towards some girls. You would want Zach
to go get that ball, and all of a

sudden, those girls would be coming back
and hanging out with us for, like, the

rest of the spring break.

After Horowitz graduates from Indiana,
friends say he intends to pursue a

graduate degree in psychology.

Instead, he opens a restaurant on the
north side of Chicago in the summer of

2011.

Friends say the shop is funded by
inheritance money Horowitz receives

stepfather passes away.

Zach tells a group of us, hey, I'd like
you guys to join in with me on this and

take on various roles.

hopefully become rich off of this
restaurant that I'm going to start up.

The name of the restaurant is Fuel.

Horwich claims the joint will combine
healthy food with a healthy lifestyle,

including an on -site nutritionist.

While Chris Krebs doesn't invest, he
says Horwich wants him on board.

Zach's like, hey, I want to bring you
on, do some marketing things, whether

social or trying to drum up business or
whatever that looks like.

Horwitz tells Krebs and others that
Howard Schultz, yes, Howard Schultz of

Starbucks fame, is interested in his
concept.

At one point in time, Zach said, look,
Howard Schultz has an investment group

that's called Maveron, and they're
interested in what we're doing, and they

think there's potential to expand upon
it. That was incredibly enticing. I

you count millions in your head at that
point.

After only a few months, the restaurant
closes down.

Krebs says Zach Horowitz has an
interesting excuse for the restaurant

shuttering. At the time, he takes it at
face value, but it now seems prophetic.

He said that his money manager, who's
helping manage his money, was involved

a Ponzi scheme.

Yeah, a little foreshadowing.

According to Zach's narrative, on
January 1st, 2012, he and his girlfriend

up their car and abandon the Midwest.

They're heading to California, where
Zach can pursue his dreams of being an

actor. To his old friends, it's
apparently a new dream.

They say Zach has no acting experience
and has never even mentioned it.

It was incredibly surprising. He had
never talked about acting before, and

of a sudden to be involved in trying to
make himself an actor was just kind of

weird.

He loved Entourage, like was a very huge
fan of Entourage, and when he moved to

L .A., that's kind of what I always
thought, like he wants to kind of live

life, but he was never like wanting to
be an actor.

Upon arrival in California, Zach begins
auditioning for various TV and film

roles. In the next few years, Zach gets
a few nibbles.

Roles like demon number three and
unnamed basketball player.

You can be what they call atmosphere.
You can be extras in a film by just

signing up.

And then you get to go on set. There's
not a real background.

But as the saying goes, there are no
small roles, only small actors.

Horowitz hypes his film appearances to
any website, podcast, or YouTube channel

that will have him. And in each
interview, his legend grows.

One of his favorite stories is how an
injury dashed his dreams of playing in

NFL. Went to Indiana University, started
playing, and basically it was before

even the first season is when I got
injured, is when we were in the training

everything process before that.

That was the longest -running joke in
our group. It's like, this guy never

played football at IU. He did tear his
ACL playing football at IU, but it was

intramural football.

I was going to be a football player, but
I had this injury that happened during

intramurals, but he kind of played it
off like it was a real football injury.

In 2013, he tells his friends he's
landed a plum roll in Brad Pitt's World

II tank drama, Fury.

Yeah, it was amazing. Some of the actors
and actresses that he worked with,

like, he would send, oh, I'm working on
this movie with this person. We're like,

really?

Just like his alleged football career,
this role is constantly attached to

Horwich's name.

Emmanuel Noisette is a film critic who
writes for themovieblog .com.

All right, so if we keep our eyes on the
screen here, Zach should be coming up

very soon. Wait, wait, wait, there he
is.

Okay, there it is.

Yep, that's all.

That's all for Zach.

Horwich's penchant for exaggeration, on
screen and off, helps raise his profile.

Everybody has a story. It's critical.

It's kind of funny, actually, because
nobody checks it.

Nobody really cares, but they like to
know that you have some sort of a

background and it's interesting.

Next on American Greed, Zach's little
white lies eventually become great big

whoppers when he claims he strikes a
deal with one of the biggest names in

Hollywood.

Working white -collar cases, you tend to
see the gamut of what deceit can cause.

This one, in terms of its brazenness, in
terms of the size of the scheme, really

takes the cake.

Shortly after arriving in California,
Zach Horowitz strikes up a friendship

a pair of aspiring filmmakers, Diego and
Julio Halibus.

Horowitz partners with Julio and founds
a company in 2013 that they call One in

a Million Productions, LLC.

The name comes from one of Horowitz's
favorite sayings, when the odds are one

a million, be that one.

he was going to be in the business of
producing films, perhaps with the idea

that he was going to have an acting role
in some of these movies as well.

The partners strike gold, 24 -carat nerd
gold, when they make their first movie

a Batman -related fan film. The film is
a 20 -minute short called The Laughing

Man, based on a DC comic book storyline.

Zach plays the title character who is
locked in an insane asylum.

Mommy always said I was different.

So the basic premise is the laughing man
is extracting revenge or getting his

kick out of murdering one of the doctors
in the film.

The laughing man also proceeds to cut
off his own face.

So this is probably one of the most
disturbing scenes in The Laughing Man,

don't take my word for it. Let's check
it out.

It looked like he felt like he was
crushing it. I didn't get that

impression, but I think he felt like he
was in the zone.

Horwich is ready to crush it off
-screen, too.

During his time in Los Angeles, the film
industry is undergoing a major

transition.

Streaming services are gaining steam and
changing the way Hollywood conducts its

business. Netflix is arguably the
biggest name in the game.

Bottom line, Netflix is adding customers
faster than expected reporting more

than 50 million streaming subscribers
for the first time.

The streaming service is constantly on
the hunt for new movies to keep viewers

hooked. Horowitz spies an opening and
devises a plan to get a piece of the

action.

In late 2013, he starts another
business, One in a Million Capital.

It's well known that streaming platforms
like HBO and Netflix are oftentimes

looking for content, and that content
comes from third parties. And so One in

Million Capital was playing into just
that idea.

Horowitz says $100 million capital is
not in film production, but rather the

film distribution business.

Its purpose is to collect movies to feed
the streamers.

At the time, Netflix is a $23 billion a
year juggernaut.

And Horowitz says he's struck a deal
with them.

We know it's coming, and Netflix is
making tons of money, and it's in all

articles. So, yeah, I can see how
everybody thought, wow, he had to deal

Netflix. This guy's got to be rolling in
it.

Horowitz tells potential investors that
one in a million capital is looking to

purchase the rights to dozens of low
-budget movies.

FBI Special Agent John Barastro is the
lead investigator on the case.

So what Zach Horowitz told the investors
was that the money that they provide

him, he goes and he buys the actual.

film rights from the content provider or
their sales agent.

And then he told investors, I have
existing relationships.

And then he sells the content to HBO and
Netflix for a 36 -month period.

Assistant U .S. Attorney David Chow says
the films are not blockbusters.

Far from it.

They seem to be American -based with
kind of, you might expect a B or C

list.

type movies.

Horowitz displays the movies in a glossy
package.

He says that the rights to each film
cost anywhere from a few hundred

to over one million dollars.

He also claims they'll be shown
exclusively in Latin America.

And maybe that actually helped assist
the scheme because these weren't...

well -known movies like a Star Wars or a
Marvel film, but rather more like an

indie film. So it would be more
difficult in some ways for a victim to

-check, for example, whether in a
particular country in Latin America,

is happening to be streaming this movie
that they've invested in.

But in order to buy the rights to these
films, one in a million capital needs

capital.

To find the funding, Zach Horowitz hits
up some old pals.

I knew, yeah, I was like all of Zach's
friends. And then they would go after

parents and try to get the parents to
invest as well.

Next on American Greed, this Golden
State transplant hits the motherlode

the Hoosier State.

Horowitz not only represented himself to
be a successful Hollywood insider, he

also spent money as though he actually
were one.

For a Midwest boy from Fort Wayne, Zach
Horwitz appears to be that one in a

million success story.

He has a few movie roles under his belt,
and he claims to be the CEO of a new

venture with Netflix and HBO.

His friends back in Indiana think he's
killing it.

Well, the portrait that Zach portrayed
on social media was like private jets

like jetting all these places.

film festivals and doing all this. I was
like, I must be doing well.

I would ask him what he was doing, and
he said, oh, distributing films to Latin

and South America.

We've got HBO, we've got Netflix, and it
kind of explained the lifestyle that he

was living.

Horowitz takes advantage of his star
status back home in the Midwest,

to prosecutor David Chow.

So his first investors were his friends,
friends that he knew from college.

While at Indiana University, most of
Zach's friends are business majors.

Since graduation, they've established
themselves at major investment firms

J .P. Morgan in Chicago and Morgan
Stanley in New York.

They're brokers with 7th Series
licenses.

These are top -flight financial
professionals. I mean, they're young,

they're the best.

According to federal prosecutors,
Horwitz tells his friends that they can

returns of up to 45 % in this emerging
market.

Zach Horwitz wasn't selling equity. He
wasn't selling shares in his own

Rather, what he was doing was raising
money through promissory notes.

The way that the agreements worked, they
were whole dollar amount agreements.

So just using a hypothetical example, he
would say like, oh, I'm buying it for a

million dollars.

After purchasing the rights to the film,
Horwitz then says he turns around and

makes a distribution deal with Netflix
or HBO.

And then we'll get back like $1 ,450
,000. And then that $450 ,000 would be

45 % return to the investors.

Investigators say Horwitz makes sure
that his early investors get paid.

And frankly...

Many of them were skeptical at first,
but when they gave him the money, they

didn't just get a return back on a piece
of paper.

They were actually receiving payments
into their bank accounts.

Like oftentimes, the investors don't ask
for their money back. They just tell

you to roll it into the next investment.

But in this case, every six months,
every year, you know, depending on when

notes mature, monies were moving back
and forth between the one in a million

capital account and the victim
investor's account.

In the summer of 2015, Horwitz sends an
annual report to his college friends.

In the report, Horwitz says he has
already acquired and successfully

49 films through the one in a million
capital banner without incurring a

loss in the process.

Number one touts the success, the prior
success that he's had. It projects these

glossy posters of the movies that he
supposedly has acquired and distributed.

Investigators say Horowitz wants his
friends to help him take the business to

new level.

Some have already made small investments
with him, but Horowitz wants them to go

all in.

To entice his college buddies, he gives
them a special gift.

He sent his friends a bottle of Johnny
Walker Blue.

You know, it's like a gift for the
success that they were having with the

business.

I had friends who started investing very
early with him, and it didn't totally

make sense to me. But, again, like, I
didn't have the minimum to invest, and

in law school or paying back loans at
that point.

Four of Zach's friends are ready to take
the plunge and start a new company to

capitalize on the venture.

The startup is called JJMT after the
first names of the founders, Jake

Wonderland, Joe D 'Alteris, Matthew
Schweinsker, and Tyler Crookston.

So JJMT, they initially were investing
informally in one million

capital. After seeing those early
returns, they left their normal jobs.

J .J .M .T.

establishes an office in downtown
Chicago just off the Magnificent Mile.

Over the next couple of years, J .J .M
.T. invests hundreds of thousands of

dollars with Horowitz and hits up other
friends and family back in Indiana to

join in.

had a role in finance in their own
sector.

And as a result, he was able to tap into
their investment, their money.

Everybody that I knew that was invested
loved it. I mean, it was the easiest

money they've ever made.

After witnessing Horwitz's restaurant
debacle a few years earlier, Chris

with the support of his wife, declines
to invest.

Absolutely tempted.

I mean, it's hard to pass up the kind of
money that you're seeing people make.

But after the fuel experience, we just
decided at that point we're not going to

mix friends and business anymore.

But Krebs says plenty of others want in
on the action.

I know of parents that were involved
that put their retirement into it. I

grandparents and brothers and sisters
and people that were involved and large

groups of friends, too.

Those friends tell their friends who
tell their parents and their neighbors.

But no one ever bothers to actually
confirm the legitimacy of Horowitz's

business. His reputed Hollywood success
is all the info they need. And they're

happy to write a check to the hometown
boy through his successful finance

friends. So there were some people who
were not really sophisticated investors

at all, but were relying on, like, their
family member that, you know, had told

them that this was a good investment.

The word of mouth advertising sparks
exponential growth.

Between 2015 and 2019, court filings
show one in a million capital issues

hundreds of promissory notes to day -to
-day MT clients in exchange for the mind

-blowing $485 million.

Certainly the demand here was extremely
high for individuals to invest their

money with Jack Horowitz's enterprise,
with one in a million capital.

And just like that, the company and Zach
Horowitz is swimming in cash.

Next on American Greed, eager investors
take extreme steps to get in on the

action. We were really excited about it.
Hence, we almost took $400 ,000 worth

of equity out of our house. We thought
we were the people who finally had the

leg up, you know, at the inside track.

In just a few short years, Zach
Horwitz's film distribution business has

from starting up to blowing up.

As word of its alleged success spreads,
he picks up hundreds of investors across

the country.

In Orange County, California, Terry
Crandall is a local economics professor

entrepreneur who runs a nonprofit voting
website.

When it comes to investing, I take a
relatively long -term approach.

As an economist, I have a lot of hubris,
right? That's sort of taught into us.

But really, there are times that I can
see patterns in the market and say, OK,

think the market's going to turn.

While Crandall says his investment
philosophy is usually conservative, he

help but be curious when his neighbor
says he's making serious bank.

He said, you know, it's pretty
aggressive. It's probably outside of

sort of investment. And he was right.

But, you know, I watched him and I asked
him a lot of questions.

Crandall says his neighbor is making
hundreds of thousands of dollars

with one in a million.

He's also the point man for a local
group of JJMT sub -investors.

Crandall wants in and ponies up $10 ,000
to join the group.

After seeing a 12 % return on his first
investment, he bumps up the dollar

amount the next time around.

So like this one, as you can see, is
from July of 2017, where we

invested $15 ,000.

And I apparently invested in movies
called Red Con 1, The Forgiven,

Origin Unknown, and Drop Off.

The agreement was for them to pay me
back my $15 ,000 and then pay me

$1 ,125 in interest.

The group includes approximately three
dozen other sub -investors. But they

aren't the only ones raising funds for
Zach Horowitz and one in a million.

There was probably five big investment
groups that all had sub -investors

underneath them.

So GJMT was the largest investor for
sure.

The feds say the other groups are the
Movie Fund, Voss Films, Pure Health

Enterprises, and SAC.

All of the investment groups are based
outside of Hollywood. An important

detail, according to Hollywood -based
investigative journalist Allison Hope

Weiner. If he tells people that he's
involved in all these projects in

and they're not from Hollywood, I mean,
they don't know how the entertainment

industry works. So it would be easier to
talk to people not in the business and

kind of fudge what you're actually doing
in the business.

HBO and Netflix are multi -billion
dollar businesses.

Weiner stresses that they wouldn't be
working with a low -level actor like

Horowitz, no matter how suave he may
seem.

If you talk to somebody who's an
attorney in the movie business or in the

streaming business, they're going to
know that nothing he's saying is true.

Right away.

But his investor's ignorance is
Horowitz's gain.

He's raising hundreds of millions of
dollars and enjoying every minute of it.

He purchased an opulent house on the
west side of Los Angeles.

He had a full wine cellar, a home movie
theater.

He spent it on private jets and private
yachts and so forth.

He spent hundreds of thousands of
dollars on events like birthday parties

spent all kinds of money taking junkets
to Las Vegas.

He spent the investor funds on Amex
bills north of $6 million, party

ranging in the six figures.

He spent, I think it was north of $500
,000 on leases for like Audis and

Mercedes.

Horowitz marries his college sweetheart
at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.

He acts like a real Angeleno and buys
courtside seats to Lakers games.

He was great.

It was always a good time with him, kind
of similar to college. Like, you go

out, he's buying all the drinks, he's
got the good places to go.

For more than five years, Horwich lives
the Hollywood high life.

But eventually, his insatiable spending
habits catch up with him.

Next on American Greed, Horwich's
fantasy comes crashing down.

and his investors must face the cruel
reality.

This one is tragic because it started
off as imaginary and continued imaginary

and then grew so large.

Want more greed?

Follow us on Instagram, connect on
Facebook, and listen to the American

podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be right back.

One unusual thing about Zach Horowitz's
business is other than his JJMT pals,

few individual investors have ever met
him in person.

Investigators say Horowitz generally
worked directly with the principals of

main investor group.

He does a very good job of finding
people that, you know, believe in him

then kind of provide credibility to him.

No investor is dealing with Horowitz.

They are dealing with their buddy.

who brought him in at the aggregator
level, who then deal with the guys at

or SAC.

In Orange County, Terry Crandall has
been investing through his neighbor, who

then forwards the money to JJMT.

I never met the J's or the M's or the
T's. I never met Horowitz.

In two years, he's made nearly $30 ,000
in profits.

Things are going so well, Crandall says
he starts borrowing money against his

assets for more investment funds.

We had done the math, sort of like
taking equity out of our cars, right? We

could pay for our cars with the interest
rate gains for the year.

While his wife has a stable career,
Crandall says he plans to quit his

job to pursue his dream of starting the
Voting Smarter app and website.

Crandall says he's ready to take $400
,000 in equity out of his home, invest

and live off the interest.

If it, around 20 to 25 percent, if I
could put in $400 ,000 into this

investment, I could make $100 ,000 a
year.

which is what I was making as a
professor.

He says he knows it's a crazy idea, but
the thought of making easy money is too

hard to resist.

No matter how cautious you are, no
matter how thoughtful you are, or how

you think you are, there'll be a moment
where the greed can get to you.

Bells would go off, and the little greed
monster in your brain silences the

bells.

In December 2019, Crandall is expecting
his latest windfall as his six -month

note is just about due.

Yeah, I mean, we were waiting for our
$105 ,000 worth of principal back, as

as, you know, another $18 ,700 of
interest.

But he soon learns that the money isn't
coming.

We got an email saying, hey, look, the
Netflix deals are on hold.

They're auditing everything.

He frantically calls his neighbor, who
tries to reassure him that nothing is

wrong.

I said, my bells are going off. He's
like, no, this is legit.

I was like, okay. And then another
month, another delay.

What Terry Crandall and his neighbor
don't know is that Zach Horwitz isn't

whip -smart young entrepreneur.

He's a con man running a Ponzi scheme.

His entire business is fake.

There's never been any film
distribution.

No selling of film rights to Netflix or
HBO.

He's just an actor playing the role of a
real -life villain.

Like, no matter what, every new project
you go into, you're nervous because you

have that imposter syndrome where it's
like, am I supposed to be here? Are they

going to find out that I'm this fraud
the whole time?

It was clear from the beginning that it
was just fake from the get -go. This one

is tragic because it started off as
imaginary and continued imaginary and

grew so large.

By late 2019, the inevitable arrives.

Horowitz is out of cash.

He stopped being able to make payments
on the promissory notes. There was

outstanding obligations of over $230
million at that point.

Ponzi schemes require a constant
infusion of new investors and new cash

off old investors.

Without fresh victims, the schemes
always collapse.

It's impossible for a Ponzi scheme to
end well. It is mathematically

No matter how successful you are at
operating a Ponzi scheme, eventually

a limit to how much new money you can
recruit, how much new money you can

into the scheme.

And that's what happened to Zach
Horwitz.

Ironically, just when his film
distribution business is hitting the

Horowitz's acting career seems to be on
the rise.

He appears in The White Crow with Ralph
Fiennes and Last Moment of Clarity with

Brian Cox.

And in a bit of art imitating life, Zach
is cast as a criminal in the film The

Gateway.

One thing that Zach likes to do is
intense themes.

This was a good fit for him, you know,
like he had his moments of just being

really, really aggressive, which I'm
sure he picked up from his intramural

football days.

Next on American Greed, Horowitz learns
to play the strong silent type when the

feds finally catch up with him.

He didn't ask why he was being arrested.

Didn't seem surprised that we were
there.

In early 2020, it appears Zach Horwitz
is about to face his day of reckoning.

He's out of money and making more
excuses to investors than payments.

But in the month of March, an unlikely
event buys him some time.

And then COVID hit, and it was just
like, well, what do we need the money

right? The world's ending.

Everybody started to lock down in March,
April.

And so I think it created an environment
where it was easier for him to say, you

know, why there was delays.

Horowitz uses the downtime to concoct
some explanations for his inability to

up. He used the excuse that Warner was
buying HBO, and as a result of their

acquisition, they were holding off on
payments to any contracts, and they

to renegotiate all the contracts.

Coincidentally, he says, Netflix also
has issues.

He just claimed that, oh, Netflix was
conducting an audit of all their content

that they were purchasing, and until the
audit was complete, no payments could

be made.

To help cover his tracks, Horwich types
up some fake correspondence and presents

them to his investors.

He would create from whole cloth fake
emails or text messages with...

supposed employees of Netflix and HBO.

And these emails look very legitimate,
again, using real people that worked at

HBO and Netflix.

For Terry Crandall, the sequence of
events prevents him from taking out a

,000 mortgage on his home.

Luckily, the payments sort of stopped,
and it just wasn't the right thing to

We had at least enough sense not to do
that and potentially lose our home.

Horwitz manages to drag out the
proceedings for over a year.

Brian Michael is an L .A.-based attorney
who is representing three of the men in

JJMT. Tyler Crookston left the group in
2018.

Zach was able to engage in a very
sophisticated effort to do what is known

lulling and to keep the JJMT members and
the subnote holders from suspecting

that there was any fraud.

But in early 2021, many investors,
including Horwich's college friends, are

up with the excuses and contact the
authorities.

So we brought it to the FBI, we brought
it to the Justice Department, and in

essence said to them, we believe we have
been victims of a massive,

sophisticated fraud. We need your help.

In Horwich's film, The Gateway, his
character gets off a good zinger when

arrested. How you doing, Mike?

Same. Different toilet, officer.

But Horowitz isn't as cocky on April
6th, 2021, when FBI agents show up at

.A. home with an arrest warrant.

One of the unique things about the
arrest was how calm he was when he came

the door. He didn't ask why he was being
arrested.

He didn't seem surprised that we were
there.

Shortly after, Horwitz's wife files for
divorce.

According to federal prosecutors,
Horwitz's Ponzi scheme is the largest in

Hollywood history.

Based on the evidence we've seen,
Horwitz raised over $650 million in the

of this six -year scheme.

One month after his arrest, Horwich is
indicted on five counts of securities

fraud, six counts of wire fraud, and two
counts of aggravated identity theft.

It was all a fraud.

He had no relationship with Netflix.

He had no relationship with HBO.

He had no relationship with the sales
agents for the production companies that

he said he was getting his movies from.

The feds say Horowitz still owes
investors an astounding $230 million.

Unfortunately, in this case, a lot of
the money has been squirreled away or

already spent, but where that money is
now exactly is hard to say.

In Orange County, Terry Crandall loses
over $100 ,000.

His neighbor fares even worse.

I mean, he lost millions of dollars. But
I know he's equally or more broken up

about losing his investors' money, and I
just couldn't imagine if I'd lost my

friends' money.

Horwitz pleads guilty to securities
fraud and gets a 20 -year sentence.

I think the sentencing was so harsh in
this case because the dollar amount to

that law, $230 million restitution.

The rest of the charges against him are
dropped.

While Horowitz is the only person
charged in the case, the question

what about his friends in JJMT and the
other investment groups?

The feds say Horowitz acted alone.

But Alexander Loftus, who represents
JJMT clients, says JJMT didn't do

its due diligence.

For example, Horowitz didn't have an
accountant.

There was no audit of his financial
records.

simple thing that didn't happen until
right before it collapsed is no one

up the phone and called Netflix and
said, hey, what's going on here?

The class action suit against JJMT seeks
damages of at least $120 million.

For the civil claims, we don't need to
prove they knew anything. We proved it

was dumb. And the basics of the claim is
this was dumb and you made money off of

being dumb and you got to pay it back
because it was stupid.

JJMT's attorney says the men should be
viewed as victims of Horwitz's scheme.

They're 100 % victims. The Department of
Justice has recognized them as victims.

And everything about the life they're
living today is reflective of someone

has been horribly victimized and nearly
wiped out financially by the fraud of a

friend.

Zach Horwitz may have been a middling
actor, but to the film critic, his

strongest performance was not on screen.

If you're doing something of criminal
activity for seven to eight years, I

at some point you start to believe that
you're not doing anything wrong at all.

It sounds as though like he believed his
own part.

That was his greatest role.

And he'll never get an award for it.

Meanwhile, Horowitz's victims are still
dealing with the fallout.

I've tried to just put that mistake of
mine somewhere hidden

in my past because I blame me.

There's plenty of tricksters and
fraudsters out there and I should have

better.

Investors, family and friends can only
wonder how this whole thing happened in

the first place.

I would like to go see him face -to
-face and ask him why. I don't expect

I'm going to get a truthful answer, but
I'd at least like to have the

conversation. I mean, he was a good
friend of mine for half my life. I would

just love to know what his endgame was
with this, and does he feel any remorse?

Is there any remorse at all for this?