Movie Producer Arrested on Federal Indictment Charging Him with $12 Million Schemes to Defraud Victims, Including Film Projects
September 1, 2025 – LOS ANGELES, CA – A former San Fernando Valley resident who worked as a producer and accountant in the movie business was arrested on Wednesday, August 27th on a 21-count federal grand jury 
indictment alleging he defrauded victims, including independent film projects, out of more than $12 million, in part by causing them to pay for COVID-19 testing that never occurred and misappropriating funds from film projects for his own personal use.
Image by Ray Shrewsberry • Ray_Shrewsberry from Pixabay
David Raymond Brown, 39, formerly known as “David Brown Levy” and “David Addison Brown,” a former Sherman Oaks resident now living in West Columbia, South Carolina, is charged with nine counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of transactional money laundering, and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Brown made his initial appearance today in United States District Court in Columbia, South Carolina. Brown’s arraignment is expected in the coming weeks in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
According to an indictment that a federal grand jury returned on August 20, Brown worked in the movie industry in various roles, including as a producer, unit production manager, and production accountant. He worked on various independent film projects to which he owed a fiduciary duty to their production companies.
From December 2021 to August 2025, Brown defrauded 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.
To create the false impression that the misappropriated funds were to be used for legitimate production expenses, Brown caused the film production companies to make payments to Hollywood Covid Testing LLC, a Studio City-based company he organized and operated, for services never rendered or already paid for, including by using false or duplicative invoices.
Brown also represented to an individual referred to in the indictment as “Victim 1” that Brown would pool money with him to make real estate investments as part of a house-flipping business. Brown contributed minimal funds and took some of Victim’s 1’s money to maintain his own lifestyle.
Separately, Brown represented to another individual – referred to in the indictment as “Victim 2” – that they would contribute money to a company Brown controlled called Film Holdings Capital. The funds then were supposed to provide loans and other financing to film projects.
Brown contributed minimal funds to Film Holdings Capital and – without Victim 2’s knowledge or consent – spent a substantial portion of Victim 2’s money on maintaining his lifestyle and repaying prior victims, including Victim 1 and the film production companies, in a Ponzi-like scheme.
To inflate his résumé and credibility in the film industry – and to induce Victim 2 to give him more money – Brown provided Victim 2 a copy of another person’s IMDb (Internet Movie Database) profile, which Brown claimed to be his own.
To ensure Victims 1 and 2 would not be discouraged from doing business with him, Brown concealed from them 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.
Instead of using his victims’ money on film productions as he promised, Brown used their 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 personal residence and on home remodeling, including approximately $99,000 for the installation of a pool.
Brown also used his victims’ money to buy a house for his mother, make payments to members of his family, pay for more than $70,000 on surrogacy and related services, private school tuition payments, and more than $970,000 in payments pertaining to “Untitled SLA,” the working title for a film project relating to the 1974 kidnapping and indoctrination of Patricia Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a domestic terrorist group.
To create the false impression that he had not misspent Victim 2’s money and that Film Holdings Capital was appropriately operating as a film finance business, Brown – among other things – tricked and fraudulently induced a third party into signing backdated loan documents and withheld purported health insurance payments from employees’ payroll while failing to maintain their health insurance coverage.
In total, the loss to victims exceeds $12 million.
An indictment contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
If convicted of all charges, Brown would 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.
The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation are investigating this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, Joshua O. Mausner of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, and Sarah E. Spielberger of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case.
Source: DOJ Release