Drew Savitch Levin, a currently working Hollywood producer who won both an Emmy and a Cable Ace award and was founder and CEO of the NASDAQ traded TV production and distribution company Team Communications Co, was indicted in L.A. today. A federal grand jury fingered him for allegedly orchestrating a multi-million dollar scam to inflate the company' s revenue and stock price. The 13-count indictment includes charges of of conspiracy, falsifying Team's books and records, making false statements in Team's annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC, making false statements to Team's outside auditors, and giving false testimony to the SEC in a deposition. Levin is expected to self-surrender to authorities on Friday and appear that afternoon in U.S. District Court in L.A.. If convicted on all counts, Levin faces a statutory maximum penalty of 200 years in federal prison.
Levin (he goes by "Drew S. Levin") is presently TMC Entertainment's Chairman/CEO whose company bio describes him as having "more than 25 years of proven international production, distribution, sales, financial and management experience and has produced and distributed all forms of media properties to more than 100 countries worldwide. He is an Emmy- and Cable Ace-winning producer, who has executive produced more than 3,000 hours of critically acclaimed reality-based, documentary and dramatic television series and specials, movies-of-the-week and mini-series, game shows, animated and live-action children's programming and live events for US networks, cable outlets and international broadcast venues. Over the course of his illustrious entertainment career, Mr. Levin has successfully built private and publicly traded media companies in the US and Europe and has raised more than $100,000,000 for his projects and companies."
Here he's interviewed by Fox News about the project Walking The Bible for PBS.
The feds noted in their press release today that a former managing director of Team' s subsidiary in the UK previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy for assisting Levin in the alleged fraud scheme. Noel Desmond Cronin, 60, of Herts, England, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson in Los Angeles on February 26 and is cooperating with the federal probe.Cronin is currently scheduled to be sentenced on January 26, 2009.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles cited this example of the alleged scam: Team licensed a collection of films known as the "Prestige Library" to a Cronin-controlled company in England called String of Pearls, who committed to pay Team $5.375 million for the films. However, String of Pearls w as unable to pay that fee to Team. Levin had String of Pearls buy a second collection of films from a third party for $500,000. Team then bought that same collection from String of Pearls for $2.535 million. String of Pearls used $500,000 of Team' s money to pay the third party, and sent $2 million back to Team, supposedly to make a payment for the Prestige Library. Levin allegedly lied to Team' s outside auditors by claiming there was no relationship between the Team-String of Pearls deal for the Prestige Library and the Team-String of Pearls deal for the second collection of films.
According to the indictment, Levin profited from the revenue-inflation scheme in several w ays. For example, he received a $335,000 bonus based on Team' s reportedly profitable 1999 performance, when in fact Team had a loss that year and Levin was not entitled to any performance-based bonus. Levin also allegedly pledged more than 500,000 shares of Team as collateral for a loan to buy a $1.5 million ranch in Montana.
Near the end of 2000, Team' s Board of Directors started an internal investigation of Team transactions. The indictment alleges that Levin obstructed the internal investigation by, among other things, firing Team' s chief financial officer and restricting the investigators' access to Cronin. In 2001, Team restated its 1999 fiscal results, going from a $1.791 million profit to a $4.25 million loss. For the year 2000, Team reported a loss of more than $42 million. In 2002, Team filed for bankruptcy protection. The SEC sued Levin in federal court in Los Angeles in 2005, and that civil case is pending. In today's indictment, Levin is accused of giving false testimony to the SEC in a deposition.
As a former employee, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!
Comment by dancingajig — March 19, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
The guy is a true genius, he should be running a studio. His scams were brilliant and he made a lot of money. That’s the most important thing. It’s the only thing that counts. Put him in charge of any studio in town right away. Anyone as creative as Drew Levin deserves to be a major mogul.
Comment by Anonymous — March 19, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
Drew Levin is the biggest lying scum bag in Hollywood and among the most hated He is currently being sued by multiple parties for other fraudulent scams that took place after TEAM. Drew takes advantage of everyone.Hes an arrogant bastard Drew is a sociopath. If you know him you can tell hes just not that smart. He thinks he can get away with his fraud. I hope they throw the book at him and his employees who have enable him to screw over hundreds of people over the years. He never won an Emmy
A consultant to DSL
Comment by RRichahcare — March 20, 2008 @ 6:28 am
Alas, Drew finally gets what he truly deserves.
Comment by Matt MaMatthew GOldstein — March 20, 2008 @ 10:15 am
So what did he do, do you see how this man is an idol to American bushiness. He’s no different then any boss that I ever had and I walked away from many of them that I would have wrung their necks if only they said one word.
Comment by dras — March 20, 2008 @ 10:28 am
Levin’s been trouble forever. I was involved with him on a children’s series 15 years ago, and I still can’t get rid of the slimy feeling from shaking his hand.
Comment by retiredwriter — March 20, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Have known (unfortunately) Drew for many years and must agree with RRichacare. Any up for going to the perp walk on Friday in downtown LA?
Comment by Anonymous — March 20, 2008 @ 10:39 am
Despite going to Jail, Drew is probably happy he’s getting so much attention!
Comment by A O D — March 20, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
don’t think there is much happiness in the levin household with a wife and three kids. the happiness seems to be with the many enemies levin created over the years.
Comment by Anonymous — March 20, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
Levin is an arrogant and evil person who does not know the difference between right and wrong. He has cheated hundreds…maybe thousands of people. I only pity those that will be sharing a cell with him. We can only hope that others will learn from this
Comment by anonymous — March 20, 2008 @ 7:53 pm
Let’s not forget the irony here, after losing money for people for 20 years some good people were still stupid enough to invest with him.
Whether he was a sociopath or had borderline personality disorder is perhaps less relevant than the behavior of people who knew better but were greedy and arrogant enough to think they would be the ones making a killing off someone they knew had been bleeding money since the eighties.
Dennis Wilson
Comment by Dennis Wilson — March 21, 2008 @ 8:33 am
I first met Drew in 1987 or 1988 at MIPCOM. I knew at that instant that he was bad news, and my opinion of him hasn’t changed since then. There was something about him that demanded a quick trip to the sink for a soapy hand wash in steaming l’eau chaude.
Comment by Krumhorn — March 21, 2008 @ 9:40 am
Here is info from today’s court appearance:
Judge: Ralph Zarefsky
Case Number: 2:08-CR-00326-DUTY
U.S.A. v. Drew Savitch Levin
Counsel Donald Re
Anyone know anything about defense attorney Mr. Re or what PIA is? PIA is set for 03/24/2008
All info is at http://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/cacd/CrimIntakeCal.NSF/b3e4628792211f8d882571ee007340ec/def7141dc235ace78825741300613e11?OpenDocument
Is someone willing to start a blog to follow the trial?
Comment by Wannabe in da courtroom — March 21, 2008 @ 10:45 am
Donald Re is a big name in the law. Drew is still spending the money of others as fast as he can.
Comment by A Gersh — March 22, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
I have known Drew for more than 30 years.
It is about time that he gets his due. It is unfortunate that people never learn to do their due diligence. Bankruptcy after bankruptcy, and still he continued to dupe investors.
The wheels of justice grind slowly, but levin will have many years ehind bars to remember each and every person he screwed.
Comment by dwshmoo — March 24, 2008 @ 8:44 am
Let’s face it, the Drew’s of the world couldn’t exist for one day if it weren’t for the greedy tv wannabees enabling him for 20 years.
Anyone naive enough to do so deserves 200 years for sheer stupidity.
Caleb Weinstein
Comment by Caleb W. — March 24, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
Levins’ greedy tv wannabees investors were lied to and cheated. Levin and his associates use press releases and smoke screens to create their deception. Hes done what he did at TEAM over and over again. These 13 indictments of fraud hasn’t stopped him, that sociopath is still working the streets looking for suckers. However his activities will come to an end because this article was published in 200 domestic and international newspapers, the FBI put out its own press release about his fraud schemes and the authorities are watching him and his inner circle very ,very closely. No network or studio will touch him or his empty shells which he represents to be his companies.
May justice move on….
Comment by entertainmentattorney — March 25, 2008 @ 11:56 am
Anyone know the status of the case? Is Drew in jail? Did he bail out? How much?
Comment by Fred S — March 27, 2008 @ 2:23 pm
As far as I can find out, he is still in custody, as is stated in this document from the federal court, which also has other info about the case.
Comment by A. Gersh — March 29, 2008 @ 12:37 pm
It looks like he gets another chance to make his case for bail on Monday, 3/31/2008.
Comment by A. Gersh — March 29, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
So it looks like two days after his Monday court appearance, Drew is still in jail. As you can see from this document he is in custody. You can look up his status at any time by checking with the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Western Division, Case Number 2:08-CR-00326 any time.
This is what justice looks like. He took money from uncounted investors, but more than that, how many former employees of his were ruined by his taking their time and reputations away in the pursuit of ever more luxuries for himself, Laurie, and the kids. He must have spent $250 per week for his silly vitamins alone, every week. His all white omelettes and strange coffee drinks are all things he will never be allowed to have in prison. For once, they got the right guy. Nobody deserves a prison cell more than Drew, IMHO, and the opinions of many others.
Comment by A Gersh — April 1, 2008 @ 11:38 pm
Keep the updates coming —
Did Wannabe in da Courtroom start a blog?
Comment by Anonymous — April 3, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
Drew plead not guilty to all 13 charges of the federal indictment Hes out on bail. The bond was set at 2,000,000; so the scum had to come up with 200,000 to get out on bail. He had to come up with an even bigger sum to retain the criminal attorney. Levin also enlisted his old partner in crime to defend him, his unscrupulous civil attorney. I hope his buddy and law firm are put under the microscope. The trial is set for early May. For the many of you who have small claims cases and cases against the scumbag in superior court, you should strike again now, cause Levin has money stashed somewhere. I would check whats inside his wife’s pocketbook.
Comment by entertainmentattorney — April 6, 2008 @ 11:22 am
Entertainment Atty:
Where do you get this info? I assume it is in a public forum or online somewhere. Can I access it so I can follow the trial or do you have to be an atty?
Please keep posting updates.
Thanks.
Comment by Anonymous — April 7, 2008 @ 11:01 am
Does anyone know when the trial date is, assigned judge, court room #, etc.?
Comment by mogul — April 16, 2008 @ 8:42 pm