All language subtitles for American Greed s15e23 Fame, Fortune & Fraud.eng

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In this episode of American Greed, the
shadowy world of film financing where

fortunes can be stolen.

We are just dying to make this movie and
we put so much into it and now

somebody's stolen it away from us.

And good names dragged through the mud.

Their reputations, in some cases, their
careers were destroyed by this fraud.

Jason Van Eman and Ben McConaughey are
up -and -coming players in Hollywood's

independent film scene, producing and
financing movies through Weathervane

Productions. Van Eman is a former B
-list actor who finds the deals.

He was the salesman. He was charismatic.
He was smooth.

And McConaughey uses social media to
show off his life as a wealth manager.

married to an Instagram model, and he
uses his family's money to fund them.

He was all over social media.

Flashy lifestyle, drove Ferraris and
Bentleys.

Ben McConaughey was all about his image.

In a few short years, the partners built
a list of credits for financing films

starring A -list celebrities.

But the feds tell American Greed that
these so -called financiers use other

people's millions to fund some films and
steal the rest.

Every day you had a cancerous knot just
wondering if this project is ever going

to be realized.

But what these bad actors haven't
counted on is getting caught up in a

Hollywood storyline.

The revenge plot.

You mess with the wrong guys, I'm going
to make it my life mission to put you in

jail. You know that the whole house of
cards has now collapsed on itself.

And that's when I got the bright idea
how to go after these guys.

In the spring of 2015, production is
moving along on the independent feature

film Inside Game, the story of an
infamous NBA betting scandal and the

project of venture capitalist -turned
-filmmaker Paul Martino.

We've scouted locations.

We have a director.

We're ready to go.

Martino has put up $1 .25 million of his
own.

and believes those funds have been
matched by Jason Van Eman and Ben

Weathervane Productions.

We thought we had found a perfect
partner to go fill in the other half of

financing to make the movie.

But before the cameras can roll, there's
trouble.

The line producer calls me up and says,
Paul, why is there no money in the

production account?

It's not just a mystery.

It's a crime that will take three years
to solve.

leaving the cast, the crew, and
Martino's $1 .25 million in the lurch.

They had found this sweet spot where
they wanted to make the movie, and then

they were closing in on getting
production started, that money was gone.

This is a Hollywood crime story that
starts about as far from the movie biz

one can imagine in the Midwestern town
of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where a young

man named Jason Van Eman grows up in a
solid middle -class family and appears

have a promising future, according to
his attorney, Neil Carradville.

He was a good student. He was a good
athlete.

He, early on, had an ambition to be a
fighter pilot.

And he actually got into the Air Force
Academy, which is no small

accomplishment. But after a year at the
Air Force Academy, Van Eman decides it's

not for him.

There is another dream calling.

The kid really wants to be in pictures.

Like so many aspiring young actors
before him, he heads to Hollywood.

He actually...

achieved some success as an actor by
getting a number of roles and, in fact,

two starring roles in some smaller
-budget films.

Billy, Billy, Billy. In 2005, Annieman
lands a leading role in a low -budget

feature called Regarding Billy, the
coming -out story of an Air Force pilot,

coincidentally, and his best friend.

Would you relax, Billy?

Get over here. Let's catch up.

But Van Eman is still waiting on his big
break and struggles to make a living as

an actor.

By 2006, he leaves Los Angeles to get
married and start a family in Oklahoma.

But one foot remains firmly in
Hollywood.

He wanted to transition from acting into
actually making movies.

Van Eman starts a company called
Weathervane Productions.

and works as L .A. contact from
Bartlesville trying to make movie deals.

Around 2011, Van Eman meets 29 -year
-old Miami investor Ben McConley through

mutual business associate, a Hollywood
producer who has worked with Van Eman on

film production and with McConley on
film investing.

Ben McConley owns Forrest Capital
Partners.

and claims to control an inherited
portfolio of massive wealth run through

so -called family office.

He had the fancy clothes.

He had the fine jewelry.

He had all the Ferraris and Maseratis
you would want to see. He was flying on

private jets, trips to Las Vegas. He
appeared to be someone who could

finance film and other projects.

The high -flying Florida financier and
the Oklahoma producer decide to partner

up with a business plan and a dream to
become well -known players in the

indie film world.

Mr. Van Eman spoke the language of
Hollywood, and he could assure the

and the producers who were, you know,
looking for money that he was going to

able to match or finance about 50 % of
the budget.

he told them that his financial partner,
Ben McConley, was going to be the one

who actually put the assets into the
deal.

The partnership produces a series of low
-budget, straight -to -screaming

Christian faith -based projects with
titles including The Sparrows and Fishes

and Loaves, Heaven Sent.

These get little traction, but serve an
important purpose, to build Vanima's

reputation as a producer, as well as
building producing credits.

The more projects, the more movies they
made, the more reputable directors,

producers, and actors that they had on
board, the more legitimacy they had. In

real way, their credibility was their
IMDb pages.

What no one yet knows, however, is that
Weathervane Productions' business model

is riddled with lies.

Jason Van Amen's background as an actor,
and to a lesser extent as a movie

business veteran, really made him
ideally suited to become a fraudster.

He was good at pretending. And that's
ultimately what the success of the

depended on, was him pretending that he
and his partner had the money to finance

these movies.

The only assets these so -called
financiers really have is money brought

unsuspecting creative partners and
investors.

The way it worked was the money first
hit Ben McConley's account, and then Ben

McConley would decide arbitrarily and
kind of on his own how much he was going

to pay himself and move into his other
account, and then how much he was going

to send to Jason Van Eman. And it was
Van Eman's responsibility then to decide

which movies got paid and which ones
were left hanging.

For eight years, Van Eman and McConley
are able to keep their scheme going.

while Weatherman Productions parlays its
ever -growing reputation into more

deals. And they are meeting with
producers from all over the world who

searching for funding deals for their
indie films.

Saul Papadopoulos is a UK -based
producer working on his latest indie

A Quiet Passion, a biopic about the life
of poet Emily Dickinson, and the

passion project of writer and director
Terence Davies, seen by many critics as

one of the greatest British filmmakers
of his time.

He reads Emily Dickinson every month,
and he says it's almost like his

Davies has written the script about
Dickinson's life.

And Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon
has signed on to play the lead.

So he said he wrote it sort of with me
in mind a bit, and then he sent me the

completed script, and I signed on
immediately.

Now it's up to producer Saul
Papadopoulos to finance the film.

He travels to the American film market
in L .A. and takes a meeting with Jason

Van Eman of Weathervane Productions.

He was a handsome chap.

who talked the talk, came across as
really caring about the project, and he

laid on the charm.

Van Eman's financing structure is unlike
any the filmmaker has encountered

before, and he is intrigued.

The structure was you put a dollar into
their account, in 90 days you get $2

back as an investment, 50 -50 with your
money and theirs into the film

production. No one was doing that
structure. I mean, it was just

In other words, Weathervane is getting
50 % ownership of the future profits and

only makes money if the film makes
money.

The producers are sceptical, but
references on other completed films are

positive, and the agreement appears to
be legit.

That's when you think, OK, well, should
we dip our toes in this water?

remembering, of course, that we've got
an independent film production about an

American poet. It's not hugely
commercial.

We took those tentative steps and put $1
.8 million into their account.

In hindsight, of course, that was a
massive risk.

Next on American Greed, more producers
think their money is safe in a protected

bank account, but they couldn't be more
wrong.

It haunts me to this day what he said to
me.

Unless they have somebody inside the
bank, there's no way you can lose your

money.

In late 2014, UK -based producer Saul
Papadopoulos is working on his latest

independent film, A Quiet Passion.

90 days after signing a financing
agreement with Jason Van Eman and

Productions, he expects to have access
to a $4 million production account.

But the account is empty.

So we give him a day, and then we get on
the phone to Jason Van Eman, and he

said, well, it's on its way. The
banking, you know, there's some

issues, and we've got a man on the
inside of the bank who's telling me

everything's fine.

On day 100, it's definitely not fine.

65 crew members are now building out
sets in Belgium and need to get paid.

The producers are forced to take out a
bridge loan to cover salaries.

Two weeks later...

Van Eman transfers a tiny portion of the
funds.

We get a drip feed of $10 ,000.

And then three days later, we get
another $10 ,000.

And we're like, Jason, what's going on?

He doesn't think there's a problem. He's
getting us the money, even though it's

just drip, drip, drip.

A week before shooting is scheduled to
start with the cast, Papadopoulos has no

idea if he will be able to pay his
starring actress, Cynthia Nixon.

No agent in America puts their...

cast on a plane without seeing the money
in an account.

So this is the big test. Then we call
Jason Van Eman and say, right, we need

several hundred thousand dollars
tomorrow or the film's off.

In the nick of time, Van Eman sends
enough for Papadopoulos to keep the

production going.

But the troubles with Weathervane don't
end there.

It was possibly one of the most
unpleasant experiences of my producing

because Every day you had a cancerous
knot, just wondering if this project is

ever going to be realized.

Even though the producer is forced to
hound Van Eman every day for months to

his funding, Papadopoulos is able to
keep the cast and crew unaware of the

financial nightmare happening behind the
scenes, and they are able to pull off a

successful shoot and edit.

We got away by the skin of our teeth,
and it was a really frightening

realization.

that it could have all gone so wrong.

In February of 2016, A Quiet Passion
premieres at the Berlin Film Festival

to critical acclaim.

Papadopoulos believes the film's high
profile is the only reason the money

finally came through.

We can only surmise that it was because
we had a really credible project that

they perhaps were using our project, our
feature film, as a proof of concept.

to then convince others, look, we're 50
% investors in this film, why don't you

invest in the next one? And I can only
guess that that's why we got away with

and so many others lost their money.

But those losses are still in the
future, for now.

With another executive producer credit
under his belt, Jason Van Eman continues

to level up.

He travels to Cannes and other European
film festivals and wines and dines in

Monte Carlo.

He was holding himself out as a film
financier, so it was important for him

be seen aboard mega yachts and partying
with film industry types because it

helped him portray himself as
legitimate.

Within a few years, Weathervane has a
growing list of titles with A -list

attached.

including Jane Got a Gun, starring
Natalie Portman, Urge, with Pierce

and film festival darling The Tale,
starring Laura Dern.

Filmmakers from near and far are taking
note.

Paul Martino is a self -described silly
kid.

Born and bred about 3 ,000 miles from
Hollywood and a world away.

He started as a total accident getting
into the movie business.

My day jobs are in a venture capital
firm, and I am an entrepreneur.

He's also a family guy who happens to
have a cousin with an unbelievable life

story. My cousin, Tommy Martino, was
involved in one of the largest scandals

sports history.

Him and his buddy, Tim Donaghy, were
involved in rigging a bunch of NBA games

when Tim was a referee.

Tommy Martino served time for his part
in the scandal, and when he gets out,

prospects are limited, except for offers
he's fielding from producers trying to

nab his so -called life rights or
ownership of his story.

And he called me up. He said, Paulie,
will you read this contract?

He sends me this contract, and it was
the most awful one -sided contract I'd

ever read in my life. He said, Tommy,
you can't sign this. He's like, look, I

just got out of jail. I need some money.

And so I bought his life rights really
just as a favor to my cousin to get him

back on his feet after he got out of
jail.

I never in a million years ever thought
that we would make a film, let alone be

talking about what happened en route to
making the film.

Six months later, Martino happens to
meet Hollywood screenwriter Andy

also a big basketball fan from Philly.

When Callahan hears the story, he asks
to write it and turns out a screenplay

for a film called Inside Game.

It is the true story of Tommy Martino,
who's my cousin, Tim Donahue, who's the

referee, and Jimmy Batista, who's the
gambler.

Basically, the three of them hatched the
scandal that was all based on the fact

that Tim knew how certain games were
going to get called. And it's a pretty

amazing story. In many ways, I call the
film Goodfellas for Dummies, because

these three kind of...

not exactly the sharpest guys around got
in way over their head and managed to

piss off the NBA, the FBI, and the mob
all at the same time.

Paul Martino contacts Michael Pierce, a
fellow venture capitalist and former

movie producer with a track record of
successful films.

So I read the script. He had hired
someone to write the script, and it was

bad script.

I said, you know what? I'll look at the
side pet project. Let me tinker with

this for a while.

With that... Paul Martino thinks he's
found a way to make his movie -making

dreams come true.

Up next, the entrepreneur with a
screenplay comes face -to -face with

Hollywood's dark side.

The live producer calls me up and says,
Paul, why is there no money in the

production account?

And takes on a mission to expose the con
men.

I said, Ben, I promise you.

This will be an outstanding episode of
American Greed. It will be my life goal

to make sure that episode happens.

In early 2015,

serial entrepreneur Paul Martino makes a
career shift.

From venture capital to filmmaking, with
the production of his movie Inside

Game. This is like any other startup
company. What do I need to go do?

I was like, okay, we need a director. We
need to figure out what the budget is.

Martino and his new partner, Michael
Pierce, anticipate needing about $4

to make the film.

And while Martino is hugely successful,
he doesn't want to take on all the risk.

I said, look, Michael, I'm good for half
that.

I have a couple buddies of mine. I put
up a call with about $2 million.

Can you figure out how we do the rest?

Pierce hires a line producer and tasks
him with finding a way to finance the

other half of the film.

And the producer comes back with a lead.

Weathervane Productions.

He says, I have found a financing
arrangement that is foolproof and

only half of the capital. They'll give
us the other half.

I said, okay, well, that sounds good.
It's a matching deal.

So who are these guys and what have they
done?

The guys are executive producer Jason
Van Eman and wealthy investor Benjamin

McConley. Through Weathervane
Productions, they have financed several

independent films and are in production
on many more.

We did our reference calls on who
Weathervane and Jason and his business

Ben McConley were.

We found other people who had made films
with them.

Michael Pierce calls a reference at one
of the largest talent agencies in

Hollywood and likes what he hears.

You know, well, they seem to have money,
and they have a lending facility with

Wells Fargo Bank out of Miami.

I said, really? Wells Fargo? Wow, that's
one of the oldest and most esteemed

lending institutions in America. So,
sounds like it's legit to me, right? She

says, well, we haven't had any issues so
far.

The agreement is relatively simple.

Martino and Pierce would send their half
to Ben McConnell's personal Wells Fargo

banker, Benjamin Raphael, in Florida.

And Raphael would certify and manage the
accounts.

Ben was presented to us as a very
successful multimillionaire from a very

wealthy family.

He is able to collateralize your money
up against his other assets to produce

the match.

So we talked to the banker. I got on the
phone with him in Miami.

Get it all checked out.

Before sending his $1 .25 million to
Weathervane as a final precaution,

decides to have the contracts reviewed
one more time by his business partner, a

securities lawyer.

It haunts me to this day what he said to
me.

This contract is weird, but it's
ironclad.

Unless they have somebody inside the
bank, there's no way you can lose your

money.

In May of 2015, Martino wires the money
to McConaughey's account.

And that summer, pre -production on
Inside Game gets underway.

All seems to be going smoothly.

Until it isn't.

We're doing pre -production work. We're
scouting locations. We're interviewing

directors. And then eventually we get to
the spot where the line producer now

needs to have access to the production
budget because he needs to start writing

checks to go secure locations.

The line producer calls me up. He says,
Paul, why is there no money in the

production account?

There's supposed to be about $4 million
in their production account, but the

balance is zero.

Michael and I are like, look, that money
needed to be there.

We're calling Ben. We're calling Jason.
We're calling the bank.

You know, what's going on here?

They said, oh, it's coming. We just got
a little held up, and we have, you know,

five movies in production.

It'll be here in two or three weeks.

Three weeks go by, and money doesn't get
to the account.

And I'm starting to realize, ah, this is
bad. This is bad.

Paul Martino decides it's time to figure
out just how bad it is and hires a

private investigator to look into the
man with the money.

I said, listen, I've got somebody I need
to go check in on in Miami.

Would you please go take a look at Ben
McConnell?

He goes, he observes his behavior.

He looks at bank account.

48 hours later, the investigator calls
Martino with an update.

And it's all bad news.

He goes, Paul, your money's all gone.

This guy stole it all.

And so I call Michael up. I go, Michael,
it's exactly what you thought.

And our investigator is 100 percent
certain that the money is gone. 100

certain. No doubt in his mind.

What makes the P .I. so sure?

It's all laid out in his damaging
dossier, a document laying bare Ben

McConnell's outrageous lifestyle, his
financial information and his alleged

criminal record.

And it was everything Michael and I was
worried that this report was going to

say. Our fears were realized. I just
thought, great, he's got a fleet of

cars.

He frequents clubs and spends $20 ,000
on bottle service every night. Jeez, I

wonder where our money went.

Ben McConelly is brazenly spending
lavish amounts of money all around South

Florida. And it is all documented on
social media with his girlfriend and

wife, an Instagram model for whom
McConelly employs personal photographers

her weekly photo shoots.

When you pictured a person that would
steal your money in a scandal, you would

picture him living the lifestyle of Ben
McConley in Miami. The model Instagram

girlfriend, the fancy cars, the big
house, the P .I. on earth, that his

girlfriend was now pregnant and that
they had this baby shower. He said, I

they spent a million dollars on this
baby shower.

So when you're picturing somebody who's
going to steal money from you.

and spend it like it's not theirs.
You're picturing Ben McConley.

With their money gone, Martino and peers
make the tough decision to stop

production of Inside Game.

Next, Paul Martino is not giving up
without a fight.

You know that the whole house of cards
has now collapsed on itself. There is no

new money coming into the system.

And that's when I got the bright idea
how to go after these guys.

In the fall of 2015, Paul Martino and
Michael Pierce should be filming their

indie movie Inside Game, but their $4
million budget has vanished.

and they suspect that their financiers,
Jason Van Eman and Ben McConley, are

running a Ponzi scheme.

They probably used money from later
projects to fund the few projects that

got the good references for, and they
ran out of money by the time it was time

to do our project.

I just remember that pit -in -my
-stomach feeling of, this really

I'm the person who got duped, and I
brought other people with me? That's a

horrible feeling.

Most of Paul Martino's career has been
spent in the tech industry in Silicon

Valley. So he pulls in his IT team to
develop a website alert that pops up

anytime someone searches the Internet
for keywords related to weathering

productions. The pop -up details his
allegations of fraud and asks anyone

concerns to contact Paul Martino.

And over the course of six or so
months...

Almost 30 different people called me on
that phone number. And those calls, they

were all over the map.

Some of them were, these guys stole my
money.

Some of them were, I'm thinking about
working with them. What do you think?

Boy, this pissed Ben and Jason off.

They knew my phone was going to ring
every time they were trying to reel in

another fish.

Martino gathers a list of other
producers and investors who claim they

their money to weather vane deals.

We know that we're victims of fraud. We
know that these are criminal actors on

the other side. And our objective is
really now just to collect enough

information to try and go after them.
And I remember telling Ben, at some

somebody's going to call me from the FBI
and ask for all the names I found.

In 2016, Assistant U .S. Attorney
Christopher Brown begins fielding

about a possible film financing fraud.

Several victims told us that they had
been looking for financing, many of them

to make movies, and that they initially
approached or were approached by a

company called Weathervane Productions
and its principal, Jason Van Eman.

FBI Special Agent Mark Soucy is brought
in to investigate and is quickly alerted

to Paul Martino.

Paul was one of those victims when I
spoke to that I just could not believe

he would lose all his money to these
individuals.

So I'm on the phone and Mark is being
polite. He's kind of like, you know,

we think that you might have been a
victim of a crime. I know I was a victim

a crime. By the way, would you like to
see the report I got from the P .I.?

like, yes, I would.

Oh, by the way, I set up a website, and
I found 30 other victims and references.

Would you like to speak with them?

He's like, yeah, yeah, I would like to
speak with them.

So Paul Martino was unique in this
investigation, and a lot of referrals

lot of victims came to the FBI through
that source.

The investigation team learns that while
the largest loss is a staggering $28

million,

The vast majority of victims are much
smaller players, creative individuals

scraping together funds to realize a
dream.

Jason Van Eman and Ben McConaughey had
promised to help make those dreams come

true.

But it's all lies.

They targeted a pretty small insular
community of creatives, of people who

in this independent film world who
really need financing because they don't

big studios backing them.

So they put a lot of trust in these
defendants, and ultimately that trust

betrayed.

Investigators also learned that Ben
McConnell's so -called private banker,

Benjamin Raphael, is simply a mid -level
bank employee recruited by McConnell to

participate in the fraud.

Agent Soucy discovers that Raphael was
fired from the bank in 2015.

Yet he continues to provide fake
official -looking bank letters to Van

McConley to give to their investors
about the security of their accounts.

What we found is there was no secure
account.

It was Forrest Capital Partners,
Benjamin McConley's business checking

at Wells Fargo. That's solely what it
was.

And a giant portion of investor money
was moved and spent nearly immediately.

The FBI calculates that over the course
of seven years, more than $68 million

moves into and quickly out of McConley's
account.

Much of it spent as fast as he could get
it.

Social media was full of Ben McConley
and Livia McConley. Her Instagram

accounts, Twitter, were filled with...

Luxury travel, luxury clothing.

At one point, he was spending tens of
thousands of dollars a month just on

flowers for his wife with all victim
money.

Investigators trace approximately $20
million of the fraudulent proceeds to a

company controlled by Jason Van Eman.
And he alone decides how much to keep

how much to send to his various
investors.

Some of these projects would get
desperate.

They had time deadlines they had to
meet. They had actor schedules they had

keep up with. At times, Mr. Vaneyman
would send them just pieces of the money

keep the project going.

Some projects didn't receive any of the
money that went to Jason.

Next, as the investigation continues,
Weathervane Productions is still

operational, and they have a new stream
of income.

And it's not coming from Hollywood, but
all the way on the other coast.

These were individuals, writers,
producers that were involved in some of

most well -known Broadway shows over the
past 25 years.

In 2018, Jason Van...

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