Producer Drew S. Levin Indicted In Accounting Fraud

Television producer Drew S. Levin (IMDb credits and congratulatory blurb-style biography), chairman and CEO of TMC Entertainment and formerly founder and CEO of the now-defunct Team Communications Group, on Wednesday was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on 13 counts including conspiracy, falsifying company books and records, making false statements in SEC filings, making false statements to outside auditors and lying in an SEC deposition. The charges arise from his alleged activities at Team Communications, which was a publicly traded producer, distributor and licensor of television programming. From the DOJ press release (via Lawfuel):

• …Levin perpetrated a scheme to falsely overstate Team’s annual and quarterly revenue to make Team appear to be profitable, when Team actually was operating at a substantial loss. The indictment charges Levin with causing Team to book revenue in violation of the accounting rules applicable to television producers and distributors. For example, Team licensed television programming to customers for inflated distribution fees. When the customers were unable to pay the inflated fees, Levin caused Team to send them millions of dollars of Team’s own money, which the customers then used to make payments to Team. Levin disguised these “circular payments” by routing them through third parties, purportedly to buy television programming.

Team fired Levin in 2001 and declared bankruptcy in 2002. Levin could face a statutory maximum of 200 years in prison if convicted on all counts. LA Times here.