Zachary J Horwitz

Horwitz, 34, who has appeared in minor films under the stage name Zach Avery, was accused of fabricating emails from HBO and Netflix executives about nonexistent film distribution agreements in an attempt to stave off demands for payment from investors. He was arrested Tuesday April 6 2020 in Los Angeles on a federal charge that he ran a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of $227 million by touting fictitious film licensing deals with HBO, Netflix and other platforms. Since December 2019, Horwitz’s company has defaulted on more than 160 payments due to his investors, according to the FBI. Its largest investor, JJMT Capital, LLC, of Chicago, is owed more than $160 million in principal and about $59 million in investment profits. The people Horwitz allegedly ripped off the worst were his friends. By far the largest source of investor funds came from JJMT Capital, a Chicago-based firm that gave Horwitz more than $485 million from 2015 to 2019. The co-founders of JJMT—Joseph deAlteris, Matthew Schweinzger, and Jacob Wunderlin—were good friends with Horwitz, whom they'd met while they were all studying at Indiana University, Forbes reports. According to Forbes, Horwitz's buddies got their friends, family, and business contacts to buy in to Horwitz's operation. Then Horwitz allegedly defaulted on his payments, and left them out to dry. Horwitz was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Monday February 14 2022 after pleading guilty to the charges.