Jason Cloth, a Canadian-born Hollywood producer with over 70 films under his belt, including Joker and The Green Knight, is facing seven counts of wire fraud in a $100 million scheme, according to The Guardian.Earlier this week, a Chicago federal grand jury charged him with allegedly diverting funds from investors toward his personal life. Cloth, 60, reportedly said that the capital would go into the making of a motion picture and a gaming investment platform but spent it on the development of his own real estate project in Canada.Not only that, but Jason allegedly duped them by saying their funds were inaccessible after his production company went bankrupt. He reportedly used money from one investor to pay back his previous investor in what is called a Ponzi scheme.The indictment against Jason Cloth was unsealed on July 28 at a United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, following which he was arrested by federal authorities.The charges against him span from 2019 to 2026. If convicted, he is looking at a maximum 20-year prison sentence for each count of wire fraud and forfeiture of at least $12.25 million.All you need to know about Jason Cloth’s careerJason Cloth was born and raised in Toronto. He began his career as a banker but moved into the entertainment industry by lending The Weeknd’s management team money to launch his career, who went on to become a chart-busting artist. In a May 2019 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cloth noted:“I’ll be honest: I almost laughed him out of my office. But they had a zest to them and a business and work ethic like I hadn’t seen before. So, we lent them a little bit of money. And lo and behold, it was The Weeknd. I only did that one deal in music — which is a little sketchy in terms of financial planning and management — but the lawyer who helped broker the deal put me into a film deal, which is how I met Aaron and Brenda Gilbert at BRON Studios. And we went on a tear.”Jason Cloth joined BRON Studios in September 2014 and has since then produced 70 feature films in collaboration with BRON Studios and provided loans of over $550 million to finance Oscar-winning films like Greyhound with Apple TV+ and Tom Hanks, Judas and the Black Messiah with Warner Bros, Ghostbusters: Afterlife with Sony, Bombshell with Lionsgate, and Pieces of a Woman with Netflix.Today, he is the director of BRON Media Corporation and oversees strategic, financial, and investor management. He is also the founder and principal owner of Creative Wealth Media group of companies, including Lending Inc., Finance Corporation, and Advisors Inc.Over the years, Mr Cloth has worked alongside A-listers including Kevin Hart on Fatherhood and The Man From Toronto, Denzel Washington on Fences and The Way Back, Angelina Jolie on Those Who Wish Me Dead, Clint Eastwood on The Mule, and Blake Lively on A Simple Favor.Now based in Beverly Hills, California, Jason was also a producer on Hugh Jackman’s The Front Runner, Brad Pitt’s Babylon, and Chris Evans’ Red Sea Diving Resort.Seven years ago, THR reported that Jason Cloth sourced his capital from Canadian pension plans, mutual funds, and private investors/ groups. Back then, he was helping BRON Ventures’ indie film group Animal Kingdom and ex-Lionsgate co-President Erik Feig’s new production company Picturestart to also get into the producing business.Additionally, Cloth’s Creative Wealth Media and BRON Studios signed a $100 million co-financing contract with Warner Bros. for a series of feature films, including Joker and the rom-com Isn’t It Romantic?Jason Cloth spoke to the publication about the underlying business risk of the indie film business and the independent distribution model.“If you look at the distribution and theatrical landscape, there are roughly 50,000 films made each year. Of those, 800 to 900 see theatrical distribution. Of those, probably 300 will make money, maybe less. On the independent side, if you’re not creating something that looks, feels and smells like a studio film, you’ll get your film made. But the guys putting up the money, the chances of them seeing their money are, at best, 50-50. It’s a highly perilous model,” the producer noted.For those interested in financing entertainment projects, Jason Cloth’s advice was to “spend an inordinate amount of time figuring out what your risks are.” He added:“Don’t pay too much attention to people telling you that your film is going to make $100 million at the box office. Spend time trying to figure out how everyone’s going to try and screw you and how to protect yourself.”In March 2024, wealthy Cook County residents from Chicago suburbs filed a class action lawsuit against Jason Cloth and his “Canadian compatriots,” accusing them of running a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme to help himself avoid bankruptcy and tax evasion across the border.Plaintiff’s attorney Alex Loftus told the press at the time:“He starts off with one entity with Canadian investors, and then they all get stiffed. And then he moves on to institutional investors, then they all get stiffed. Then he moves on to a third entity with American investors in Chicago, and then they all get stiffed. Then he moves on to a fourth entity, and he keeps on moving through the entities and using Canadian bankruptcies to stiff the investors.”Loftus accused Cloth of using his “Hollywood accounting” skills to lure North Shore residents.“So, with the movie funding investments, this doesn't work in California, where people actually understand how movie finance works. So, what the movie finance con-men do is they reach out to the Midwest and they get into the Midwest through brokers in the Chicago area,” the lawyer added.Back then, several metro Chicago investors and at least a hundred alleged class action victims were said to have lost $35 million and $88 million to Jason Cloth, respectively.Later that year, a Florida jury ordered Jason Cloth to pay $19.6 million to an investor in a separate fraud case who had invested in the TNT docuseries The Pathway based on the NBA Draft.