In the Hollywood entertainment industry a few years ago, Zach Horwitz was a mysterious figure:
Horwitz has made several horror films intermittently over the years. His acting skills are notoriously bad, and he was once scolded by the director for acting like a "dead horse".
But Horwitz is no worse than a top celebrity. He and his wife live in a mansion worth 6 million US dollars. Whenever he has time, he goes to the front row of the Los Angeles Lakers home court to watch the NBA. For his birthday, he can invite singer Miguel to cheer. The life of an upper class person...
(Zach Horwitz is an actor on the surface)
In Hollywood, few people inquire about the origins of other people's huge wealth, which gives Horwitz an opportunity:
On the surface, Horwitz is a Hollywood man. A young actor and producer, privately, he is a super scammer who has concocted Hollywood's number one Ponzi scheme...
Dream Showbiz
Horwitz was born in Berkeley, California, and his parents divorced when he was ten years old. In the years that followed, he followed his remarried mother from Florida to Indiana.
(Horwitz’s resume)
In 2011, he invested in a juice bar while studying psychology in Chicago. Unfortunately, it closed after only three months of operation.
(The juice bar envisioned by Horwitz)
Although this entrepreneurial experience ended in failure, Horwitz developed two skills.
First, he has amazing lobbying skills. He almost convinced a JP Morgan executive to resign to work with him.
The second is acting talent. While he started a juice bar, he also learned drama performance at a local theater, which laid the foundation for his future career in Hollywood.
But the drama experience did not help his acting ability, but his deception skills.
After graduating from Chicago, Horwitz took his new wife back to his birthplace, California, and went straight to Los Angeles and Hollywood.
This is a vanity fair bigger than Chicago. He firmly believes that he can make a name for himself here with his mind and eloquence.
(Horwitz and his wife)
Life was pretty good when he first arrived in Los Angeles. Horwitz boasted to his wife that while he was opening a juice bar, he established a relationship with Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, and got an opportunity to work in Schultz’s investment company. He also showed his wife the email Schultz sent him.
However, his wife did not know that Horwitz claimed that he and Schultz were as close as brothers and that all the correspondence and emails they exchanged were forged by him.
(Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks)
During that time, Horwitz was like countless bit parts, running around in Hollywood. He thought that the acting skills he cultivated in Chicago would never catch the attention of directors in Hollywood. He was directed by directors on the set more than once. He was scolded until his head was bloody.
(Horwitz's acting skills are terrible)
Although his acting skills are terrible, Horwitz's interpersonal skills are first-rate. He tried his best to expand his network and even met two producers in the industry.
(Two co-producers)
When expanding his network, Horwitz once again brought up the fact that he and Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, were buddies, and the two producers actually believed it. The three of them
unexpectedly met each other late, and finally formed a partnership to establish a production company named "1inmm".
(Horwitz (far right) and two partners)
production company claims to create "unique films with popular concepts and themes."
From 2012 to 2014, 1inmm's business was obviously not very good, and it could only produce one or two movies a year with mediocre box office.
However, Horwitz relied on this production company to allow himself to play some guest roles in the film, which fulfilled his dream of becoming an actor.
Of course, there are also occasionally successful films, such as Brad Pitt's "Fury."
But in general, Horwitz and others did not make much money by making movies honestly.
(logo of 1inmm company)
first came to "fraud"
. In 2014, Horwitz happened to have dinner with a film distributor in Miami and found the inspiration to make a fortune from him:
, a distributor in Miami, was responsible for translating Hollywood theatrical films. into a Spanish version and sold to the Latin American market. He works with big companies like Netflix, HBO, and Sony on a daily basis.
Horwitz had an idea and came up with a plan:
He immediately opened the phone book and contacted several college classmates who worked in investment banks, asking them to invest in a movie that he would run, promising a return rate of as high as 30% to 40%.
In order to make his classmates believe in him, he once again used the name of Starbucks founder Schultz, and also added "senior partners" Netflix and HBO.
did not expect that after hearing about his project, his old classmate immediately invested US$37,000.
This was the first money that Horwitz got with nothing...
(Horwitz asked his old classmates to invest the first money)
After that, Horwitz followed the same pattern and "financed money" to two other old classmates who worked in investment banks. The story of
is similar:
he has taken a fancy to the copyrights of a number of blockbuster movies, and plans to acquire them and sell them exclusively to Netflix, HBO, and Sony's distributors in Latin America.
’s business is a guaranteed profit. Anyone who invests money in him to purchase these movie rights will get a profit return of more than 35%.
(Horwitz fooled two other classmates into investing)
Horwitz was looking for "financing" from his old classmates while showing them the contracts he signed with Netflix and HBO, which even had the signature of the president of Netflix.
Of course, it goes without saying that these contracts were all forged by Horwitz.
Unexpectedly, after reading the project, the two old classmates felt that it was profitable. Not only did they invest a large amount of money themselves, they also lobbied a large number of relatives and friends to invest.
horwitz naturally accepted everyone who came, and took advantage of the situation to "upgrade" the project.
In the end, this turned into a "mega project" in which Horwitz's company planned to acquire the rights to seven movies and prepare to sell them to Latin American distributors of Netflix, Sony, HBO and other large companies.
(Horwitz's company's so-called partner)
Just like that, Horwitz's company made millions of dollars in revenue overnight, and Horwitz also jumped from a small actor who did little things without telling his wife to a huge earner. "Film Investors".
(Horwitz started a Ponzi scheme)
However, those who invest money must pay back. When the date comes, the promised 30% return must also be fulfilled.
horwitz knows this very well:
itself has no so-called movie projects at all. If it wants to pay investors returns, it must continue to cheat, attract more new people to invest in this project, and use the money of new investors to pay old ones. Investors are promised returns.
In other words, tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall. That is, a "Ponzi scheme".
(Horwitz faked a lot of contracts)
In order to attract new investors, horwitz launched a bigger project:
acquired the copyrights of 49 movies and sold them exclusively to Netflix, Sony, HBO and other companies...
(horwitz plays more Larger)
Thanks to Horwitz's proficient counterfeiting ability, new project financing was also quite smooth. Not only did he pay the first batch of investors returns on time, he also received tens of millions of dollars in new investment.
was mainly the first batch of investors. After tasting the sweetness, they really believed in his lies.
Seeing the large sums of money coming from Horwitz's company, Horwitz's two old classmates who originally invested in the company couldn't sit still. They quit their jobs to work for Horwitz and helped him find more investments.
(Horwitz’s classmate quit his job in an investment bank to work for him)
In the next few years, Horwitz and several old classmates used this method to continue “financing” and even obtained funds from many investors in Chicago, New York and other places. to $490 million.
Not all of this money comes from investment institutions, most of it comes from Horwitz's intricate personal network with several old classmates.
The so-called investors are mostly classmates, friends, relatives, classmates of classmates, friends of friends, relatives of relatives...
Horwitz made a lot of money by relying on this financing model. He also earned a lot of money from Hollywood. An eighth-tier actor suddenly became a mysterious rich man in Beverly Hills.
(Horwitz became the "mysterious rich man" in the entertainment industry)
The scam was exposed
In order to continue playing the game of "beating the drum and passing the flowers", Horwitz could only keep fabricating one big project after another to attract more and more people to invest money. .
He bought a mansion and a luxury car and lived a luxurious life. Using such packaging also attracted more investors to a certain extent.
But if you often walk by the river, your shoes won’t get wet. No matter how tightly Horwitz’s lies are woven, there will be times when they are seen through.
In 2017, a steel business owner heard about Horwitz's project through a friend and decided to take a look.
(The steel businessman decided to take a look at Horwitz's project)
Although he didn't know much about business in the film and television industry, the boss immediately became suspicious after meeting Horwitz in a luxury hotel.
Because Horwitz promised him that as long as he invested 30 million in the next six months, he would get a 16% return.
The steel boss thought that the money was too easy to come by, and there might be something fishy about it.
So he decided not to read Horwitz's thick project plan, but directly asked Horwitz to provide financial statements. Unexpectedly, Horwitz politely refused.
horwitz just told the boss firmly: The 16%
promised to you will not be less by then.
The steel boss then judged that Horwitz's project was probably suspected of fraud...
(Horwitz in Hollywood)
This was the first time that Horwitz's scam was suspected.
Although senior businessmen do not come to join in, there are always ordinary people who are willing to come in and invest money.
Over the years, Horwitz has been insisting on the game of demolishing the east wall to repair the west wall, promising that the returns to old investors will always be paid on time.
So year after year, Horwitz not only successfully concealed this scam, but also made a lot of money...
(Horwitz appeared in fashion magazines)
Unfortunately, God's calculations are not as good as those of man.
Horwitz's Ponzi scheme began to fail. He could not attract more new investors, and his business was about to explode...
In mid-2019, Horwitz's company stopped paying investors returns, and many investors sued Horwitz and other partners. . Others were unable to get their principal back and reported to the FBI and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
(Horwitz's business exploded)
fbi and the US Securities and Exchange Commission quickly intervened in the investigation. A Ponzi scheme that had been hidden in Hollywood for many years finally surfaced.
The FBI confirmed that Horwitz's company has defrauded as much as US$690 million over the years, defrauding as many as 250 investors, making it the number one Ponzi scheme in Hollywood!
Major companies such as Netflix, HBO, and Sony, which have been repeatedly targeted by Horwitz over the years, rushed to refute the rumors after hearing about the case, saying that they had never done business with Horwitz.
(Netflix refutes rumors about Horwitz’s fake “email”)
In 2021, the FBI raided Horwitz’s mansion in Beverly Hills and officially arrested him.
(Horwitz’s mansion in Beverly Hills)
In 2022, after more than two years of trial, Horwitz was finally sentenced to 20 years in prison for fraud, money laundering and other crimes. For the rest of his life, he was still burdened with paying compensation to the victim as much as 2.3 billion dollar amount.
Since then, Hollywood's number one Ponzi scheme mastermind Horwitz has been jailed.
He went from a Beverly Hills billionaire to a prisoner.
However, many of his victims lost their money and their families were destroyed.
Everything goes as it should:
Once you tell a lie, you have to use more lies to cover it up, but the pie in the sky will never fall.
