TRICKSTER

Southern California Man Duped Investors Out of $14M With Fake Movie: Feds

Adam Joiner allegedly tricked investors into believing that Netflix was making and distributing the film.

A Southern California man allegedly scammed $14 million from investors by falsely telling them their money would be used to produce a feature film for Netflix, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Adam Joiner, 41, was arrested Tuesday on federal charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft, the Department of Justice said in a press release. Joiner, the owner of a company called Dark Planet Pictures, defrauded investors by tricking them into believing the film, titled Legends, was being made and distributed by Netflix, even forging the signature of a Netflix executive on “bogus” documents, according to federal prosecutors. KTLA reports that Joiner allegedly used $5 million of the $14 million he raised for the film to buy a home in Manhattan Beach, California. Joiner raised millions from investment firms in South Korea and China for the film, which federal prosecutors described in court filings as “an anachronistic mash-up of legendary and historical figures from nineteenth century America, such as Davy Crockett, Calamity Jane, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry.”