Zachary Horwitz: Hollywood’s $650M Ponzi Scheme, Sentence, and Fallout

The Zachary Horwitz Ponzi scheme was a seven-year fraud in which a struggling Los Angeles actor, who performed under the stage name Zach Avery, raised at least $650 million from more than 250 investors by inventing film distribution deals with Netflix, HBO, and Sony that never existed. Horwitz pleaded guilty to securities fraud in October 2021 and was sentenced in February 2022 to 20 years in federal prison, with restitution set above $230 million.¹

How the Scheme Worked

Horwitz ran the fraud through a company called 1inMM Capital, LLC, short for “one in a million.” The pitch was simple. He told investors he was buying foreign film distribution rights and reselling them at a premium to streaming platforms for their Latin American markets. He issued six- and twelve-month promissory notes promising returns of 25 to 45 percent, and some early investors were promised even higher yields on shorter timelines.¹²

None of the deals existed. 1inMM Capital never acquired film rights and never entered into any distribution agreement with the streaming platforms Horwitz named. Both Netflix and HBO later confirmed they had never done business with Horwitz or his company.³

To sustain the illusion, Horwitz forged an elaborate paper trail. He drafted fake distribution contracts in Microsoft Word and lifted executive signatures from LinkedIn profiles. He fabricated bank statements. He showed investors bogus emails that appeared to come from Netflix and HBO executives. He told investors the deals were subject to strict nondisclosure agreements, which discouraged them from contacting the streaming platforms directly to verify anything. When suspicious investors pressed harder, he arranged for an unidentified woman to impersonate an HBO contact on the phone.⁴

The money moved the way it does in every Ponzi scheme. New investor funds paid the returns owed to earlier investors, creating the appearance of a profitable business. Whatever was left over funded Horwitz’s lifestyle: a Beverlywood home purchased for roughly $6 million, luxury cars, private jets, and a celebrity interior designer.¹²

Who Invested and How the Fraud Spread

Horwitz started with people who trusted him. His earliest investors were college friends from Indiana University, including Jake Wunderlin and Joe deAlteris. Wunderlin put in $37,000 in 2014 and received a $9,000 profit within 90 days, which built the credibility Horwitz needed to grow.⁴

Wunderlin, deAlteris, and two other friends soon formed an investment entity called JJMT Capital and began pooling money from themselves, their parents, and wealthy acquaintances on Chicago’s North Shore. By the time the scheme collapsed, JJMT Capital alone was owed more than $160 million in principal and roughly $59 million in promised profits.⁵ The investor base grew to include wealthy individuals from Napa Valley, Orange County, and Las Vegas. More than 250 people invested directly or indirectly.¹

The scheme peaked in 2019, when Horwitz raised $358 million in a single year. That same year, new money could no longer keep pace with what was owed. 1inMM Capital began defaulting on its promissory notes, missing more than 160 payments by December 2019.⁴⁵

How the Scheme Unraveled

As demands for answers grew, Horwitz doubled down. He blamed missed payments on bureaucratic holdups at the streaming platforms and on COVID-19. He sent fabricated emails and text messages impersonating real HBO and Netflix employees. In some cases he used spoofing apps to send messages to himself, then showed those messages to investors as proof of ongoing negotiations.¹⁴

The story collapsed on February 23, 2021, when Wunderlin and deAlteris contacted Freeway Entertainment, a company Horwitz had named as an intermediary, and were told no account for Horwitz existed. The FBI was already investigating. A criminal complaint charging wire fraud was filed in Los Angeles federal court on April 5, 2021, and FBI agents arrested Horwitz at his Beverlywood home the following morning.⁶⁴

The same day, the SEC filed a parallel civil enforcement action in the Central District of California, alleging a $690 million Ponzi scheme. The court immediately froze Horwitz’s assets and those of 1inMM Capital.²

Sentence and Restitution

Horwitz pleaded guilty in October 2021 to one count of securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi. On February 14, 2022, Judge Scarsi sentenced him to 240 months in federal prison and ordered restitution of $230,361,884, the approximate amount of outstanding principal still owed to investors.¹

Prosecutors summed up the case in their sentencing memorandum: “Defendant Zachary Horwitz portrayed himself as a Hollywood success story. He branded himself as an industry player. But, as his victims came to learn, he was not a successful businessman or Hollywood insider. He just played one in real life.”¹ Court records show Horwitz did not appeal his sentence and has not sought post-conviction relief. The criminal case was terminated on February 16, 2022.⁷

The SEC’s civil case produced a final judgment ordering Horwitz to pay disgorgement of $62,847,901.05 plus $11,375,011.28 in prejudgment interest, deemed satisfied by the larger criminal restitution order.⁸ In January 2022, the court appointed Michele Vives of Douglas Wilson Companies as permanent receiver over 1inMM Capital and its affiliated entities, with a mandate to recover assets and administer distributions to victims.⁹ The sale of Horwitz’s Bolton Road residence produced net proceeds of $1,417,517.16 for the court registry.¹⁰ The receiver has continued to file quarterly reports and settlement motions through at least early 2026.¹¹

The gap between the $230 million restitution order and the assets recovered so far is wide, a common outcome in Ponzi cases where most of the money was spent or paid out to earlier investors rather than preserved in a form that can be clawed back.

Was Anyone Else Charged?

No co-conspirators have been criminally charged. Gustavo Montaudon, a former 20th Century Fox vice president whom Horwitz had identified to investors as a 1inMM principal responsible for streaming platform relationships, denied any involvement. He told the Los Angeles Times: “I don’t have a relationship with him. I don’t know what he was doing.”¹² The FBI complaint did not accuse him of wrongdoing. Filmmaker Andrew Levitas, who partnered with Horwitz in a production company called Rogue Black, was likewise not alleged to have known about the scheme.⁴

On the civil side, investors filed a lawsuit in Illinois state court against the founders of a Chicago investment brokerage firm, alleging the brokers failed to perform adequate due diligence before recommending the scheme.¹³¹⁴⁴

Where to Read and Watch More

The New Yorker published a long-form profile of Horwitz in June 2024 that traced his path from Indiana to federal inmate and reported new detail on how he fabricated a mentorship with Starbucks founder Howard Schultz to recruit his earliest investors.⁴ A documentary titled “Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme,” directed by Joslyn Jensen, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 14, 2024, and features interviews with victims alongside clips from Horwitz’s filmography.¹⁵

1
U.S. Department of Justice. LA Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for $650 Million Ponzi Scheme
2
SEC. SEC Charges Zachary J. Horwitz and 1inMM Capital
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NBC Los Angeles. Aspiring Actor Charged in Ponzi Scheme Involving Hollywood Film Rights
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The New Yorker. Master of Make-Believe
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Los Angeles Times. Hollywood Actor Zach Avery Arrested in Ponzi Scheme
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U.S. Department of Justice. Beverlywood Man Arrested for Allegedly Bilking Investors
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CourtListener. United States v. Horwitz
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SEC. Final Judgment in SEC v. Zachary J. Horwitz
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1inMM Receivership. Background Information
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CourtListener. SEC v. Zachary J. Horwitz Docket
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1inMM Receivership. Case Documents
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Los Angeles Times. Zachary Horwitz Hollywood Film Ponzi Scheme
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Law360. Brokers Sued Over Actor’s Alleged $690M Ponzi Scheme
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The Guardian. Hollywood Ponzi Scheme – Zachary Horwitz
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Tribeca Film Festival. Bad Actor – A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme