California Man Scammed Investors Out Of $14 Million With Fake “Netflix” Deal

Federal Prosecutors claim a California man scammed foreign investors out of $14 million after selling them on a fake movie idea for Netflix. 

According to the NY Post, Adam Joiner, 41, of Manhattan Beach, surrendered to authorities Tuesday on charges of wire fraud and money laundering. He was also charged with aggravated identity theft for allegedly using fake documents and forged signatures to dupe investment firms in South Korea and China into thinking that his bogus film had a Hollywood producer on board, and was being picked up by Netflix. 

The film entitled “Legends” was supposedly about historical figures such as Paul Bunyan and Davy Crockett. 

Joiner ran a company called Dark Planet Pictures, and claimed that top Hollywood producers, who have worked on big-budget flicks like “Natural Born Killers” and “Transformers” — had agreed to work on the film after getting an initial $10 million from investors, federal prosecutors allege.

Joiner allegedly met with a director at Korean Investment Partners in 2015 and provided him with a script for “Legends,” written by his brother.

As the Korean Investment firm considered investing in the project, Joiner lied to company reps telling them that Netflix had agreed to distribute the film, according to a criminal complaint.

The elaborate claim was backed up by a fake distribution agreement that looked as if a Netflix executive signed it, which helped convince the Korean firm to invest $8 million in the project and transfer half of those funds to Joiner’s production company, prosecutors said.

The scam worked so well that Joiner used it again with a Chinese investment firm, Star Century Pictures and secured another $6 million out of them. 

Prosecutors said FBI agents contacted the Netflix executive who purportedly signed the distribution agreement, only to learn that he had never heard of Joiner or his project, according to an affidavit.

Joiner faces up to 32 years in prison if convicted on all charges.