LOS ANGELES, Calif.–Probation violations have resulted in a four-year prison term for a man who posed as a Hollywood producer and told investors he was developing an adventure series about the Department of Homeland Security, stated prosecutors.
Joseph Medawar also was ordered Tuesday by a Los Angeles federal judge to pay $2.6 million in restitution to the defrauded investors and perform 3,000 hours of community service, which he had failed to complete the first time it was ordered, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Medawar, 48, pleaded guilty in 2006 to tax evasion and conspiracy for the TV show investment scam.
He had billed himself as a movie producer looking for investors in a TV series to be called “D.H.S.”
There was no TV series and investors were left holding the bag, according to prosecutors.
At the time, U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real sentenced him to federal prison for a year, plus the community service, but later reduced the jail time to probation.
Medawar drew the new four-year prison term for probation violations, including attending the movies and the gym instead of working, as required, at a community center near San Pedro, prosecutors said.
Medawar’s scam was the subject of a 2008 episode of the CNBC true-crime series “American Greed.”
