Kriti Mehrotra
With HBO’s ‘MoviePass, MovieCrash’ living up to its title by delving into the company’s founding and its unexpected implosion by outside investors, we get a documentary unlike any other. After all, it incorporates not just archival footage but also exclusive interviews to underscore the way this subscription movie ticketing service has endured many highs and lows in its life. Amongst those to thus be significantly mentioned in this ordeal is Khalid Itum, a former executive who found his way into the firm by chance and then embezzled hundreds of thousands.
Khalid Itum is a Convicted Pilferer
Although Khalid has often described himself as a serial entrepreneur with such charm that he has even managed to thrive within numerous startups, he was working in a furniture store back in 2009. According to reports, he was a salesman at Workspaces LLC in Washington, D.C., only to soon be let go as his boss uncovered he had been using the company Visa card for personal expenses. In fact, he’d made purchases at Banana Republic, Gilt.com, plus Rosetta S tone before further using the card to pay for airline tickets, his phone bill, and his internet plan, all without authorization.
As if that’s not enough, Khalid had purportedly gone as far as to submit some of these expenses for reimbursement too, causing the company to be billed twice and losing as much as $36,068.16. He was hence charged with felony theft in August 2010, with the indictment claiming he’d also stolen at least $1,000 worth of goods, just for him to plead guilty to a lesser count two months later. In his plea for misdemeanor second-degree theft, he reportedly asserted that he had indeed utilized the company Visa card for personal charges yet pegged the figure far lower at 5,372.51.
As a result, once all plea negotiations were done, Khalid was sentenced to one year of probation as well as 300 hours of community service, and he was additionally ordered to pay a $750 fine. From what we can tell, he’d been serving at another local furniture store named MOI Inc. at this time, which he soon left for a stint at an enterprise dealing in folding partitions called Skyfold. However, by the time March 2011 rolled around, he was holding the title of partner at a brand strategy consultancy, Pulse Strat, only to soon join the then up-and-coming MoviePass as an advisor in 2014.
However, per the aforementioned original, it wasn’t until renowned entrepreneur Mitch Lowe took over as CEO in 2016 that Khalid was able to establish a place for himself in this organization. He apparently impressed the former to such an extent he gradually rose through the ranks to hold several executive positions until he was even tasked to serve as an Interim CEO for a while. Little did anybody realize in the ongoing chaos of this company’s fund issues that this convicted criminal was stealing again — he allegedly made the most of the opportunities available but not in a good way.
Khalid Itum is Awaiting Federal Sentencing Today
Khalid Itum — who’d left MoviePass once it imploded — was eventually arrested by special agents with the FBI on February 21, 2023, on two counts of wire fraud plus two counts of money laundering. According to the Department of Justice, he embezzled approximately $260,000 from this enterprise’s parent company to repay the money he’d borrowed to produce an event at the 2018 Coachella music festival. This Los Angeles resident was subsequently released on a $75,000 bond, with his trial already scheduled for April 18, yet he actually didn’t stand trial until late January 2024.
In the end, following three days of testimonies, on February 1, 2024, Khalid was found guilty of two counts of wire fraud — the jury acquitted him of the other two counts of money laundering. Therefore, today, at the age of 43, he is awaiting his sentencing, meaning that although he faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each count, he is currently out on bond with limited freedom. His sentencing was originally scheduled for April 29, 2024, but it has since been postponed.
Read More: Ted Farnsworth: Where is the Ex-Chairman of MoviePass Now?
