Frank Agrama

Frank Agrama
Born Farouk Agama
(1930-01-01) January 1, 1930
Arish, Egypt
Alma mater UCLA
Occupation Distributor, real estate
Spouse(s) Olfat El Sergany
Children 2

Farouk "Frank" Agrama (born January 1, 1930 in Arish, Egypt),[1] is an American director, producer and writer. He is founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Agrama made a number of low-budget films which included The Godfather's Friend, Queen Kong and Dawn of the Mummy. He also began selling broadcast rights from Paramount Pictures which he then sold to his friend, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset media company.[2]

In 1983, he secured a deal with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to distribute the controversial Shaka Zulu miniseries.[3] In the same year, he founded Harmony Gold USA, Inc. Despite the Shaka Zulu's massive success worldwide, Agrama's skillful negotiations left SABC to actually lose money while Harmony Gold kept most of the profit.[4]

Harmony Gold would eventually be known for producing the film Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, other Robotech animated works and the miniseries "Heidi".

On October 26, 2012, Agrama was convicted after a lengthy trial involving the buying and selling of US film rights to the Mediaset media company at inflated prices.[5] As his age exceeded 70 years, he was exempted from direct imprisonment and served no actual jail time. According to the Los Angeles Times, prosecutors in Milan, Italy charged Agrama, along with former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and ten others in a trial over tax fraud, embezzlement and false accounting at the Mediaset media company on November 21, 2006.

In 2013, Agrama and several others, including Mediaset Vice Chairman Pier Silvio Berlusconi, son of Silvio Berlusconi, and the Hong Kong-based Wiltshire Group of Companies were placed on trial for tax evasion and embezzlement with the broadcasting rights firm, Mediatrade. In 2014, all parties were acquitted in the first instance due to expiring statute of limitations.[6] A new appeals hearing took place on January 20, 2016.[7] All charges against Agrama and five others were dropped, while Mediaset CEO Pier-Silvio Berlusconi and Chairman Fedele Confalonieri were sentenced to 14 months imprisonment.[8]

Legal problems

Tax-fraud conviction in Mediaset trial (1988-98)

The Mediaset trial was launched in April 2005, with indictment of 14 persons (including Silvio Berlusconi and Agrama) for having committed:[9][10] (A) false accounting and embezzlement in order to mask payments of substantial "black funds", committed in 1988–94. (B) tax fraud equal in total to more than €62 million (120bn lira), committed in 1988–98.

Both indictments were related to achievement of personal tax evasion, through illicit trade of movie rights between Mediaset and secret fictive foreign companies situated in tax haven nations, causing fictive losses for Mediaset, with the trade gains being accumulated by the foreign companies owned (in this case, Harmony Gold) by the indicted tax fraudsters, who ultimately had the gains paid out as personal profit without paying tax in Italy.[11]

On 26 October 2012, Agrama was sentenced to three years of punishment by an Italian court for tax evasion.[12] The charges were in relation to a scheme to purchase overseas film rights at inflated prices through offshore companies. The three-year term was never served in accord with a 2006 amnesty law intended to reduce prison overcrowding. Agrama and his co-defendants were also ordered to pay a 10 million euro fine.[5][13]

Acquittal in Mediatrade trial

In October 2011, Paddy Chan Mei-yiu and Katherine Hsu May-chun, along with nine others (including Frank Agrama and Pier Silvio Berlusconi, son of Silvio Berlusconi), were indicted by Milan court and charged with buying rights for US television series and movies, then reselling them to broadcasting rights firm Mediatrade (a subsidiary of Mediaset) at inflated prices and laundering the money in a complex scheme. The four companies allegedly involved in this scheme were Wiltshire Trading, Harmony Gold, CS Secretaries and Loong Po Management.[14]

According to prosecutors, Chan met Agrama in Cannes, France in the late 1970s at a trade fair and they decided to form a partnership to trade movie rights internationally. Chan set up a Hong Kong-based Harmony Gold Limited in 1979, records from the city's Companies Registry show. In the same year, Agrama set up Agrama Film Enterprises on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Four years later, he set up Harmony Gold USA. He later also became the Los Angeles representative of another Hong Kong company established by Chan, Wiltshire Trading. Prosecutors estimated the illicit profits between 1988 and 1999 amounted to US$170 million. Earlier in 2005, Swiss investigators froze 150 million francs (HK$1.29 billion) at a UBS branch in Lugano belonging to Harmony Gold, Wiltshire Trading and other companies.[15]

On July 24, 2014, Variety reported that some of the charges have been dropped due to expiring statute of limitations.[16] An appeals hearing is set to take place January 20, 2016.

On March 18, 2016 Hollywood Reporter reported that at the January 20, 2016 appeal Frank Agrama was confirmed acquitted. Five other people, including Paddy Chan Mei-yiu and Katherine Hsu May-chun, were confirmed acquitted. Mediaset CEO Silvio Berlusconi and Chairman Fedele Confalonieri were sentenced and received the same 14-month sentence.[8]

Production credits

Actor

Director

Producer

Writer

References

  1. ↑ http://www.mymovies.it/biografia/?r=947
  2. ↑ "How Bruce Gordon, the man from WIN, helped catch Silvio Berlusconi". Australian Financial Review. March 7, 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Remembering Shaka Zulu". Remembered. May 30, 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "Joshua Sinclair on Shaka Zulu and apartheid". Camera in the Sun. September 2013.
  5. 1 2 "Silvio Berlusconi sentenced for tax fraud". BBC News. 26 October 2012. Archived from the original on 11 December 2015.
  6. ↑ Nick Vivarelli (2007-01-15). "Judge throws out some Berlusconi charges". Variety. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
  7. ↑ "Mediatrade, il 20 gennaio inizia l'appello". e-duesse. November 9, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  8. 1 2 Ariston Anderson (2016). "Mediaset CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi Gets 14-Month Sentence in Tax Evasion Case". Hollywood Reporter.]]
  9. ↑ "Milano, chiusa l'indagine Mediaset. Berlusconi verso il rinvio a giudizio" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 19 February 2005. Archived from the original on 2 November 2013.
  10. ↑ "Chiesto il rinvio a giudizio per Berlusconi" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 27 April 2005. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013.
  11. ↑ "I pm: 3 anni e 8 mesi di carcere a Berlusconi" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 19 June 2012. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013.
  12. ↑ "Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud". The Times Of India. Archived from the original on 29 October 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  13. ↑ "Silvio Berlusconi Sentenced To Four Years In Prison Over Mediaset Tax Evasion". Huffingtonpost.co.uk. 26 October 2012. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
  14. ↑ "Hong Kong set to hand over Berlusconi-related evidence". South China Morning Post. 7 June 2013.
  15. ↑ "Italian prosecutors say Hong Kong women were key to a massive money-laundering scheme". South China Morning Post. 22 May 2014.
  16. ↑ Nick Vivarelli (2014). "Judge throws out some Berlusconi charges". Variety. Retrieved 2015-12-11.]]

External links

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