Ted Farnsworth , the former chief operating officer of MoviePass and guy who had the bright idea to commit $ 9.95 per month for unlimited flick screenings , has admitted to diddle investors in the subscription ship’s company . According to the Department of Justice , Farnsworth pleaded guilty toone count of securities faker and one count of conspiracy to commit security role player and will face up to 25 years in prison house .
If you ’re unfamiliar with the MoviePass story , Farnsworth is not the laminitis of the society , which was start out by Urbanworld Film Festival beginner Stacy spike as a relatively mild subscription service designed to entice people to go to the cinema a little more often . Farnsworth was the head of analytics unbendable Helios and Matheson , whichbought a majority wager in MoviePassin 2017 and eventually push the company to offer filmgoers the power to see one film per day for just $ 9.95 per month .
Farnsworth ’s plan successfully pull in lots of ratifier — more than three million peoplesigned up for the service . And that ’s where the trouble start . While Farnsworth hit the press lead to tout the boom in business and claim that the company would turn a profit by selling client information , behind the view , MoviePass washemorrhaging Johnny Cash . It would n’t take long before MoviePass started backtracking on its hope of unlimited filmgoing , as it come out toinstitute blackouts on pop films , experiencing outages in its services , andchanging prices and plans with little warning .
Rod Vanderbilt, Mitch Lowe, John Travolta and Ted Farnsworth attend the New York premiere of Gotti© Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images
After Farnsworthdrove MoviePass into bankruptcy , he obviously ran the playbook again with another company call in Vinco Ventures . Per the DOJ , Farnsworth and his co - plotter overstretch in cash from investor by lying about the standing of the business , all while hive off cash at once to their own pockets .
Farnsworth ’s sentencing will take spot later on this year . Meanwhile , MoviePass is back under the ownership of its founder Stacy Spikes , and it’sreportedly profitable(though exploiter of the serviceregularly complainabout bug and issues ) .
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