Zachary Joseph Horwitz, a low-budget film actor, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Monday after pleading guilty to defrauding investors out of $650 million.

The punishment was handed down in Los Angeles by U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi, who also ordered Horwitz to reimburse the $230,361,884 he made from the fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

According to prosecutors, Horwitz persuaded five investor groups and more than 250 people to lend him money by claiming he could buy movie rights from producers and sell them to HBO, Netflix, and Sony Pictures Entertainment for a large profit as the platforms capitalized on global consumers’ shift to streaming.

Horwitz allegedly offered profits of up to 45 percent and showed forged documents, including agreements granting his firm those rights, according to the authorities.

In what has been dubbed the “streaming wars,” media behemoths were rushing to stock up on web-based material in the latter half of the 2010s, buying up the rights to titles, many for the expanding overseas market online.

After Horwitz decided to plead guilty last year, federal prosecutors reduced the case to one count of securities fraud, describing it as a Ponzi scheme in which he used his most recent investment monies to make promised payments, with interest, to earlier investors.

According to FBI Special Agent John Verrastro, he founded 1inMM Capital LLC in 2013 apparently to buy the rights to English-language films and sell them to large media firms for streaming in Latin America.

Prosecutors say the scheme began the following year.

Horwitz sold his victims on a single title, sometimes obtaining $1 million or more from each victim, and then updated them on the project’s progress, according to Verrastro.

Horwitz then claimed, according to Verrastro, that he had expanded his rights-flipping technique to other overseas markets, such as Australia and New Zealand.

According to the affidavit, Horwitz, who described himself as an entrepreneur, gave an expensive bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label blended Scotch whisky to several investors along with copies of his 2015 annual report.

Horwitz stated that no license arrangement had ever lost money, and that “strategic partnerships” with the streaming giants had been established, according to the letter.

According to authorities, it reached a breaking point in 2019 when some investors alleged Horwitz was defaulting on payments due after six or twelve months. Horwitz retaliated by impersonating HBO and sending bogus emails with reasons for cash flow problems, including revised “payment cycles,” according to the affidavit.

Horwitz was apprehended in April, and the plot was brought to an end. His lawyers did not respond to a request for comment on the punishment right away.

According to Verrastro, one investing group alone is owed $160 million. Last year, a law firm announced in a press release that it had filed a class-action lawsuit against Horwitz on behalf of cheated investors.

According to prosecutors and court filings, Horwitz used his profits to buy a property in Beverlywood, south of Beverly Hills, for roughly $6 million, as well as luxury cars, private jet flights, and luxury furniture.

The home’s features were highlighted in Verrastro’s filing. It has a gym, a wine cellar, and a home theater and is located just a block from Ranch Park Golf Course and within walking distance of the Fox Studio Lot.

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