20 hours Ago By Garth Franklin
Ted Farnsworth, dubbed the ‘architect’ of the infamous $9.95-a-month subscription plan at movie ticketing subscription service MoviePass, plead guilty on Tuesday to defrauding company investors according to Farnsworth was CEO of Helios & Matheson Analytics which bought MoviePass in 2017 and saw it quickly grow to 3 million subscribers. In the process, MoviePass lost hundreds of millions of dollars before declaring bankruptcy in 2020.
In 2022, The DOJ charged Farnsworth with securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud. Then MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe was also charged and pleaded guilty to securities fraud conspiracy. The government filed a superseding complaint against Farnsworth last month charging him with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud over a separate scheme involving another publicly traded company, Vinco Ventures.
The SEC complaint indicates Farnsworth secretly controlled Vinco Ventures, which raised $120 million between 2021 to 2023 for a purported video sharing platform that never came to be. In the process he took out millions for himself, all while under investigation for the MoviePass case. His $1 million bond was revoked after the government accused him of using company funds to pay for men he met on escort sites.
Farnsworth’s lawyer, Sam Rabin, says in a statement to : “Farnsworth was anxious to accept responsibility for his conduct. The most important step in doing that was to plead guilty to the crimes with which he is charged. He did that today.
” After declaring bankruptcy, MoviePass relaunched under different ownership and with a different business model. Sources: ,.
