|
David Bergstein, who was executive producer of
the 2015 film "In the Heart of the Sea," was sentenced by U.S.
District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan, federal prosecutors
announced. He had been found guilty of fraud charges by a jury
in March.
Lawyers for Bergstein, 55, did not respond to a request for
comment on Wednesday.
Bergstein, a resident of Hidden Hills, a Los Angeles suburb, was
arrested in 2016 while he was the chief executive of merchant
banking firm Cyrano Group Inc. He was indicted in November 2016
along with Keith Wellner, the former general counsel of Weston
Capital Asset Management, who later pleaded guilty and
cooperated with prosecutors.
According to prosecutors, Bergstein and Wellner from 2011 to
2012 engaged in a scheme to conceal information from Weston
investors about transactions involving their money, and took
funds from one pool of Weston investors to make payments to
another.
Prosecutors said they also misappropriated some investor funds
for their own and others' benefit. Manhattan U.S. Attorney
Geoffrey Berman in a statement said the fraud cost investors
more than $26 million.
Bergstein previously controlled several movie production
companies including ThinkFilm and Capitol Films Development. He
took an advisory role in Walt Disney Co's 2010 sale of Miramax
to an investor group that included a business partner.
His movie credits include serving as an executive producer of
2004's "The Whole Ten Yards" and 2007's "Before the Devil Knows
You're Dead."
In 2010, five of Bergstein's film companies, including Capitol
Films and ThinkFilm, were forced into bankruptcy at the urging
of a group of creditors, court records showed.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Leslie
Adler)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
