A Hollywood producer duped investors out of more than $12 million, using the funds for movie projects on expensive cars, home renovations, a new fridge and even surrogacy services, prosecutors have alleged.
David Raymond Brown, 39, who worked on films including the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice starring Sebastian Stan and The Fallout starring Jenna Ortega, was arrested Wednesday.
Brown, formerly known as “David Brown Levy” and “David Addison Brown,” has been charged with nine counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of transactional money laundering, and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
He made his initial appearance in the US District Court in Columbia, South Carolina, with an arraignment expected in the coming weeks in Los Angeles.
According to a federal grand jury indictment, Brown worked in the movie industry in various roles, including as a producer, unit production manager, and production accountant and took part in various independent film projects.
From December 2021 to August 2025, Brown is accused of defrauding his victims via several methods, including by misappropriating funds belonging to film production companies by causing money to be transferred from the companies’ financial accounts to accounts that Brown controlled.
Instead of using money from the companies on film productions as he promised, it’s alleged Brown used the funds to purchase vehicles, such as a 2025 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon and three Teslas, including a 2024 Cybertruck.
He also made mortgage payments on his home and on home remodeling, including approximately $99,000 for the installation of a pool, and more than $16,000 for a Subzero refrigerator.
In addition he used the funds to buy a house for his mom, pay other members of his family, spend $70,000 on surrogacy and related services, and private tuition services, prosecutors allege.
A large part of Brown’s scheme to defraud the production companies involved making them pay for Covid-19 testing that never occurred, according to the indictment.
Payments were made to Hollywood Covid Testing LLC, a Studio City-based company, organized and operated by Brown, for services never rendered or already paid for, including by using false invoices, it’s claimed.
In addition to his defrauding of the companies, Brown is also accused of duping two investors – referred to as Victim 1 and Victim 2 in the indictment.
He told Victim 1 they could pool money and make a business flipping houses, prosecutors said, but contributed little to the business and used some of the individual’s money for other things.
Separately, he encouraged Victim 2 to contribute money to a company he controlled called Film Holdings Capital.
The funds were then supposed to provide loans and other financing to film projects, though he spent a substantial portion of that money on maintaining his lifestyle and repaying prior victims, including Victim 1 and the film production companies “in a Ponzi-like scheme,” prosecutors said.
Brown is also accused of sending Victim 2 a copy of someone else’s IMDb page to give himself more credibility and concealing numerous facts about himself, including a May 2023 article in the Los Angeles Times, detailing numerous fraud accusations made against him.
He also concealed numerous lawsuits filed against him that alleged fraud.
If convicted of all charges, Brown could face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, and a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for each aggravated identity theft count.
