President of North Carolina-Based Entertainment Company Agrees to Plead Guilty to Embezzling from Television Production

LOS ANGELES - A New York man who is the president of an entertainment production company based in North Carolina has agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge for embezzling more than $200,000 from a television production.

David Ozer, 58, of Roslyn Heights, New York, was charged via information with one count of wire fraud. In a plea agreement also filed today, Ozer agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense, which carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

Ozer is expected to make his initial appearance in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

As alleged in the information, Ozer is a producer and the president of Strong Studios Inc., a production company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. He also is the producer of "Safehaven," a supernatural thriller television series. According to his plea agreement, Ozer defrauded Ravenwood-Productions LLC, the principal financial backer of "Safehaven" by misappropriating approximately $214,486 in production funds from bank accounts for the production.

To create the false appearance that the funds he embezzled were spent on legitimate production costs, Ozer created fraudulent accounting records, including falsified invoices, and forged a letter purportedly from his accountant. In reality, Ozer's accountant did not write the letter, the contents of the letter were false, and Ozer used his accountant's name without his accountant's authorization.

Ozer provided these falsified documents to a lawyer for Strong Studios and caused him to transmit them in an email on January 3, 2024, to an attorney for Ravenwood-Productions.

The FBI is investigating this case.

Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander B. Schwab of the Corporate and Securities Fraud Strike Force and Matt Coe-Odess of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.