Cape Cod Film Director Charged With Bilking $4.7 Million from Massachusetts
77The Golden Boys (filmed in Chatham on the Lower Cape)
Blythe Danner & Richard Dreyfus in The Lightkeepers
Cigar Chomping Movie Man Daniel Adams
Daniel Adams Alledged to Have Inflated Production Costs
Massachusetts’ huge movie industry, which has been responsible for some of the highest grossing films of the 2000s, has a brand new horror story that it does not want filmed.
The State, under Governor Mitt Romney’s film tax credit program, has been the location for over two dozen feature films in the last two years. Since Romney signed the program into law in 2005, hundreds of movies and television programs have been shot, in and around Boston.
Recently, Director Daniel Adams was charged with 10 counts of larceny after getting almost $5 million in tax credits. The charges stem from two little known films that he made on Cape Cod. The Light keepers (2009) with Richard Dreyfus and The Golden Boys/Chatham (2008). starring David Carradine, Rip Torn, Bruce Dern and Mariel Hemingway.
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced that the 50 year old Adams, allegedly submitted inflated expenses for both the films, resulting in the overpayment the tax credits.
The most flagrant example cited was the discrepancy in the amount paid to Richard Dreyfus. Adams said he paid the veteran actor $2.5 million. The amount was in reality, $400,000. The tax credit on $400,000 is $100,000 - but on the larger figure, Adams collected $625,000. That was enough to pay Dreyfus and have $225,000 left over.
The tax credits are just like money, in fact even better. The credits can be sold for cash, which is allegedly what Adams did. In fact, it appears that Adams only source of funding for one of the movies, was the tax credit money which he sold to finance the film!
All over Cape Cod, reports are coming in from vendors. Innkeepers, and merchants, claiming that Adams never paid them. A check of his house in Barnstable Village (near Hyannis) revealed that he has not been living in his home. There is reportedly a lien on the property.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office reported that their investigation began in 2010 when it was discovered that the State Withholding tax on Dreyfus’ salary, had not been paid.
Adams is being held in $100,000 cash bail.
So far it doesn’t seem like any of his film associates, especially Richard Dreyfus, are willing to post it for him.
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Adams has been sentenced to two years in prison for his scam. For details, click on the link
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To see the top ten films made in Massachusetts recently, follow this link: http://billrrrr.hubpages.com/_eg8y4okdyscz/hub/Hollywood-Ships-off-to-Boston-for-26-Feature-Films
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Thanks Dee. I guess there will always a certain amount of cheating in programs like this. Luckily the benefits to the state have far outweighed this negative aspect. Congrats to the Attorney General's office for zeroing in on the problem and taking action.
Amen, Billrrr
Hi Billrrr!
Voted 'up' for 'useful.' This is something the public really ought to know about Govenor Romney. We are dealing with people who believe public funds should be transferred to private corporate profit -- on the flimsy basis ('supply side' theor) that the recipients will, then, create jobs, I mean CREATE JOBS!
When the late President Ronald Reagan was govenor of California back in the late sixties and early seventies, he was very much involved in this sort of thing for the television and film industry -- of course, more so since he had been a B actor, among other things, before transitioning to a career in politics.
Its not so much the criminality but the deregulated environment that sets the table for such things, for what is known in criminality as 'control fraud.'Romney's 'reforms' created what William K. Black (government hero of the Savings and Loan debacle of the 1980s) calls a 'criminogenic environment,' where the incentives, I mean INCENTIVES, become so perverse as to guarantee fraud.
In other words, Romney gave the industry a mile, and this guy, Daniel Adams, took an additional mile....
Take it easy.
Again, thanks for an incisive comment, wingedcentauer. This is a messy situation, but much credit needs to go to the person in the Massachusetts Attorney General's office who uncovered the scam.
This guy was apparently so addicted to 'stiffing' everybody, that he decided not to pay the State Withholding tax on Dreyfus' salary. This did not go un-noticed by a sharp A.G. employee.
This spark eventually caused the fire that burned Dan Adams.
I guess he figured that if he paid the withholding tax, he would have to stick to his lie and pay the tax on $2.5 million, instead of the $400,000. He wasn't about to pay the bigger tax. And also, he wasn't about the pay the smaller tax!
Bottom line. He now owes Massachusetts; at least two years in the can, ten years probation, and a repayment of over $4 million.
Dee42 Level 5 Commenter 5 months ago
Uh! How can certain people sleep at night? Great hub, VERY interesting.