Movie producer found guilty in South Florida scheme to defraud filmmakers of $60 million
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A movie producer was convicted Monday by a federal jury in Fort Lauderdale for his role in a financing scheme that defrauded film and theater producers out of more than $60 million.
Jason Van Eman, 44, of Oklahoma was found guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering, and faces up to several decades in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Southern District of Florida said Tuesday in a news release.
From 2013 to 2019, Van Eman presented himself as a film producer and financier, promising movie and theater producers that his business partner, Benjamin McConley, 39, would match any cash that they contributed to their projects, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. With the combined starting capital — which would make the projects more attractive to investors — McConley would apply for and secure financing from banks.
But McConley never matched the producers’ cash contributions or applied for financing, investigators found. Instead, Van Eman and him stole the producers’ money by transferring it to their personal and corporate bank accounts.
To make the scam more believable, they recruited Benjamin Rafael, 32, a Wells Fargo Bank employee at the time, whose role was to assure victims that their cash contributions had been matched and that their money was secure — neither of which was true, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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Van Eman, McConley and Rafael used the stolen money to purchase luxury vehicles, watercraft, real estate, jewelry, home furnishings, designer clothes, hotel accommodations, and private and commercial air travel, investigators found. Van Eman also used some of the stolen cash to fund movies in which he was cast.
McConley previously pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme and was sentenced to 13 years in prison, court records show. Rafael was sentenced to nearly four years behind bars for participating in the scheme and for concealing his criminal history on applications for COVID-19 relief.
Van Eman is listed as an executive producer of the movies “A Quiet Passion” and “The Tale,” which premiered in 2016 and 2018, respectively, according to imdb.com. He also played the role of O’Connor in the film “Camp Cold Brook,” also released in 2018.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 21.
