United States Attorney
Southern District of New York
U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
NOVEMBER 23, 2010 ELLEN DAVIS,
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced today that NORMAN ADIE,
the operator of the Brooklyn Heights Cinema, was arrested and
charged with securities fraud and wire fraud, in connection with
a scheme to obtain money from movie theater investors by falsely
claiming that the money would be used for movie theaters and
other specified purposes.
According to the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan
federal court:
NORMAN ADIE was the Managing Member of Heights Cinema,
LLC, the Managing Member of Brooklyn Arts Cinemas, LLC, and the
Managing Member of Westfall Cinema, LLC, (collectively, the “Adie
Companies”). From 2007 to the present, ADIE solicited more than
$530,000 from various investors and creditors on the false
representations that he would use the investors’ money to develop
and operate the Adie Companies. Specifically, ADIE promised
investors that, among other things, their investments would be
used in connection with real estate development for certain of
the Adie Companies, and ADIE promised certain investors regular
payments in return for their investments. In truth and in fact,
however, ADIE misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of
investor funds and used investor funds to pay the operating costs
of businesses other than those in which the investor invested, as
well as for ADIE’s own purposes.
ADIE, 53, of Manhattan, is charged with two counts of
securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. He faces a
statutory maximum sentence of 80 years in prison on all counts:
20 years on each of Counts One and Two (Securities fraud); and 20
years on each of Counts Three and Four (Wire fraud). ADIE also
faces a fine on Counts One and Two of the greater of $5 million,
or twice the gross gain or gross loss from the offense, and on
Counts Three and Four of the greater of $250,000, or twice the
gross gain or gross loss from the offense.
ADIE was arrested today and was presented in Manhattan
federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge THEODORE KATZ.
Mr. BHARARA praised the work of the Criminal
Investigators of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern
District of New York.
This case was brought in coordination with President
BARACK OBAMA’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which
Mr. BHARARA serves as a Co-Chair of the Securities and
Commodities Fraud Working Group. President OBAMA established the
interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an
aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and
prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes
representatives from a broad range of federal agencies,
regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local
law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful
array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task
force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive
branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and
prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective
punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat
discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover
proceeds for victims of financial crimes.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys JILLIAN BERMAN and BRIAN
JACOBS are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Complaint are merely
accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and
until proven guilty.
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