L.A. producer accused of fleecing dad’s longtime pal out of $7 million in brazen rip-off | EUROtoday

A struggling movie producer fleeced a longtime pal of his father’s in an audacious con that netted the 41-year-old greater than $7 million over a seven-year interval, authorities allege.

The sufferer, who’s recognized in courtroom data by the initials “R.P.,” has recognized the scammer, Justin Berns, since he was 4, in accordance with an FBI affidavit unsealed Wednesday and reviewed by The Independent.

Berns’s brazen rip-off revolved round an ongoing monetary hard-luck story that includes phony financial institution paperwork, bogus assortment company letters, and a California legal professional who by no means really existed, the affidavit states.

The West Hollywood resident co-produced the favored internet collection My Gay Roommatewhich ran for 3 seasons and spawned a made-for-TV film, which Berns co-executive produced. He produced three or so different initiatives, in 2016 and 2017, whereas working in digital advertising and marketing at twentieth Century Studios, Berns’s LinkedIn profile exhibits. Federal brokers arrested him in Michigan on March 11, however Berns, whose Facebook profile consists of photographs that present him hobnobbing with varied political figures, doesn’t but have a lawyer listed on the docket and was not in a position to be reached for remark.

Reached by telephone on Wednesday, Berns’s father, who lives in South Florida, informed The Independent that he “can’t talk now,” earlier than rapidly hanging up.

Berns’s alleged ruse kicked off in April 2017, when Berns’s dad informed R.P., a buddy of his since 1987, that his son was within the midst of “substantial financial hardship,” the FBI affidavit states. He mentioned he had been serving to Berns repay a mountain of debt, however that he himself had since run out of cash within the course of, the affidavit explains. (Berns’s father is just not accused of any wrongdoing.)

Berns then related with R.P., telling the Palm Beach County, Florida, resident that “due to his extensive debts, history of overdrafts, and writing bounced checks,” the cash his dad had given him was “tied up and frozen by [his] banks,” the affidavit goes on. He mentioned he wanted R.P.’s funds to repay a specific amount of his current debt, which might subsequently “unfreeze” the funds his father had fronted him, in accordance with the affidavit. Once the cash was unfrozen, Berns assured R.P. he would pay again each him and his dad, the affidavit continues.

R.P. agreed to lend Berns what he wanted, “believing he was helping” his outdated buddy’s son get again on his toes, the affidavit states.

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So, R.P. quickly started wiring cash in accordance with Berns’s directions, the affidavit says. However, every time R.P. despatched the quantity Berns had requested, he would ask for extra, floating an array of excuses as to why his accounts had been nonetheless frozen.

“On some occasions, [Berns] would tell R.P. that his money was received but reversed by the bank weeks later due to his blacklisted status with various banks and credit unions,” the affidavit contends. “[Berns] told R.P. that the banks collaborate with one another, and therefore several banks know of his poor financial history. [Berns] explained that banks use Early Warning Services and Chexsystems as a weapon against consumers attempting to utilize the banks’ services.”

To bolster his claims, Berns commonly despatched R.P. screenshots of his accounts, purportedly exhibiting massive quantities of cash, sitting there frozen, the affidavit alleges. It says he backed these up with correspondence from varied assortment companies he claimed had been “working on behalf of the banks,” insisting to R.P. that, for these causes, he “was unable to send and receive money through traditional banking methods.”

Berns informed R.P. that he employed a lawyer named Stephen Hernandez to assist him struggle again in opposition to the banks and assortment companies, in accordance with the affidavit. R.P. subsequently started receiving common emails from Hernandez, who stored him up to date on the main points of Berns’s monetary circumstances, forwarding emails and different documentation from banks and collections companies from his personal Gmail account, the affidavit states. One included a promissory be aware from Berns to R.P., drafted by Hernandez, for $3.9 million, it says.

“According to R.P., Hernandez’s emails to R.P. legitimized [Berns’s] situation,” the affidavit states.

Yet, it maintains, every time R.P. known as Hernandez on the quantity Berns gave him, nobody ever picked up the telephone. When R.P. tried to substantiate Hernandez’s id for himself, he was unable to take action, as was a California-based legal professional he employed to trace him down, in accordance with the affidavit.

It says FBI investigators analyzed subscriber and IP login data for the Gmail deal with Hernandez used to speak with R.P., and located it had been created across the identical time Berns claimed to have retained him. IP connection logs for the Hernandez Gmail account additionally overlapped with connection logs for Berns’s private e-mail deal with, the affidavit states, noting that the contents of Hernandez’s Gmail “only pertain to communications with R.P. and not to any other clients.”

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As it turned out, Berns created “Stephen Hernandez” out of entire fabric, in accordance with the affidavit.

“Throughout the investigation the FBI has attempted to verify Hernandez’s existence and status as a California attorney,” the affidavit maintains. “The California State Bar confirmed that there is no record of a person named Stephen Hernandez ever being licensed to practice law in California since the Bar’s establishment in 1927.”

Last March, a letter on TD Bank letterhead that Berns despatched to R.P. confirmed a steadiness of roughly $6.4 million, and informed his benefactor it could launch the funds inside three to 5 enterprise days, in accordance with the affidavit. But, the FBI says it contacted TD Bank, which mentioned Berns’s accounts had already been closed at that time, there was no cash in them, and confirmed that the letter was counterfeit, the affidavit states.

It says the FBI additionally received in contact with Transworld Systems, the gathering company Berns claimed was hounding him, having despatched R.P. not less than 21 letters purportedly from a pair of workers on the agency’s workplace in Horsham, Pennsylvania, named “R. Saguaro” and “A.L. Maxwell.” Again, TSI executives informed the FBI that the corporate not solely had no file of any accounts associated to Berns, and didn’t ship the letters, it didn’t have an workplace at that deal with, and didn’t have any workers by these names, in accordance with the affidavit.

“Therefore, it appears that these letters were also fraudulently created by [Berns] and sent to R.P. in an effort to further his fraud scheme and extract additional money from R.P.,” the affidavit alleges.

In all, the affidavit says R.P. wired Berns over $7 million between May 2018 and May 2024. Berns “does not appear to have any other course of income,” it contends, including that, to this point, R.P. “has not been repaid.”

“Furthermore,” the affidavit concludes, “an analysis of bank records received… revealed that [Berns] used the funds received from R.P. on international travel, luxury hotels, nightclubs, gambling, and personal living expenses.”

Berns is dealing with one rely of wire fraud, a cost that might put him behind bars for as much as 20 years. He stays detained pending an preliminary look on April 2 in West Palm Beach federal courtroom.