William Sadleir, $28.7M Fraud, New York 2023

Defendant Name, Crime, State Year

William Sadleir, the former chairman and CEO of Aviron Pictures, LLC, has been arrested and charged with engaging in a massive fraud scheme that defrauded investors of approximately $28.7 million, according to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As alleged, Sadleir misappropriated millions of dollars in funds from Aviron that had been invested by the Fund in the company. He represented to the Fund that this money had been invested by Aviron in pre-paid media credits with the advertising placement company MediaCom Worldwide, LLC.

However, Sadleir, using the bank account for a sham entity he had created, illicitly transferred out of Aviron over $25 million of those funds. He used a significant portion of those illicitly transferred funds for his personal benefit, including to purchase a private residence in Beverly Hills for approximately $14 million.

Sadleir then falsely represented to the Fund that Aviron had purchased an approximately $27 million balance in pre-paid media credits with MediaCom that were available to promote future Aviron films, and pledged a portion of those credits to the Fund as collateral for additional loans, when in fact the claimed credits did not exist due to Sadleir’s misappropriation.

The Fund is a publicly traded, closed-end investment fund with approximately $649.1 million in assets as of December 2019. Sadleir oversaw the operations of Aviron from 2015 until December 2019, during which time the company participated in the distribution of several films in the United States.

“As alleged, William Sadleir orchestrated a massive fraud, embezzling approximately $14 million of investor funds from his film company to pay for a Beverly Hills estate, among other fraudulent acts,” said United States Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman.

FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. added, “Today’s arrest serves as a reminder of the FBI’s dedication to holding people accountable for egregious financial crimes of this nature.”

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