‘Joker’ & ‘Longlegs’ Producer Jason Cloth Charged In $100 Million Ponzi Scheme

Jason Cloth, a film producer with dozens of credits including Joker, Longlegs and Babylon, is facing numerous federal fraud charges and decades in prison in connection with a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors of more than $100 million.

Prosecutors say that Cloth, 60, of Beverly Hills, operated Canada-based Creative Wealth Media Finance Corp and solicited various clients to invest in purported film and entertainment projects or to fund a gaming entertainment investment platform. He was arrested Tuesday and made his initial court appearance in Los Angeles later that day.

In the 12-page indictment filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago (read it here), prosecutors allege that Cloth fraudulently obtained more than $100 million from an Illinois investment adviser, the adviser’s clients and other investors based on false representations about the performance and value of their investments. According to the U.S. Attorney Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Cloth knew at the time of the investments that he would use the money for other purposes, including the development of a real estate project in Canada.

The indictment also alleges that Cloth engaged in a Ponzi scheme by using some investor funds to repay prior investors. Prosecutors seek forfeiture of at least $12.25 million for the projects.

Cloth faces seven counts of wire fraud tied to his involvement in the scheme, and each count is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

Cloth has scores of producing credits during the past dozen years. Along with the billion-dollar-grossing Joker and the Nicolas Cage horror hit Longlegs, he worked on such films as Babylon, The Birth of a Nation, The Duel, The Addams Family and its 2022 sequel, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Americana, Goodrich and the TV series Kin.