An entertainment production company president has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for embezzling over $400,000 from a television production and defrauding investors in other projects. David Ozer, 59, of Roslyn Heights, New York, received the sentence from United States District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr., who also ordered him to pay $399,344.52 in restitution.
Ozer was charged in two separate federal criminal cases. He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in October 2024 and later admitted guilt to an additional wire fraud count on January 28 in a separate case.
As the president of Strong Studios Inc., based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Ozer produced the supernatural thriller series "Safehaven." Between February 2023 and January 2024, he misappropriated approximately $214,486 from Ravenwood-Productions LLC, the main financial backer of "Safehaven."
To conceal his actions, Ozer created fraudulent accounting records and forged a letter purportedly from his accountant. He used these falsified documents to deceive a lawyer for Strong Studios into transmitting them via email on January 3, 2024, to a lawyer for Ravenwood-Productions.
In another scheme from March 2023 to June 2024, Ozer convinced two victims to loan him money for a television series titled "Endangered," promising them executive producer credits. He also solicited funds for script development that never occurred. In total, he misappropriated about $207,100 from five victims.
Prosecutors noted that "[Ozer] is an experienced businessman in the entertainment industry" and highlighted his awareness of wrongdoing: "He knew it was wrong to embezzle funds from his company’s principal financial backer and he knew it was wrong to misappropriate funds from individual investors."
The FBI conducted the investigation into these matters. Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab and Matt Coe-Odess prosecuted the cases.