Kriti Mehrotra
Born on December 5, 1986, in Berkeley, California, to Susan “Sue” and Howard Horwitz, Zachary “Zach” Joseph Horwitz had a complex upbringing. According to Prime Video’s ‘Hollywood Hustler: Glitz, Glam, Scam,’ his parents divorced when he was just a young boy, following which he grew up in Tampa, Florida, with rather limited means. However, things changed when they relocated to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and his mother married wealthy manufacturing executive Robert “Bob” Kozlowski, which reportedly sparked a new interest in him. No one had any idea back then that he would end up evolving into not only an actor and producer but also a convicted fraudster.
How Did Zach Horwitz Earn His Money?
In 2011, a year after Zach graduated from Indiana University Bloomington, he kick-started his career with the idea of establishing a national juice bar chain named Fül. He had just recently dropped out of the Doctoral Program at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology after 3 months and had reportedly ended up connecting with then-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. He opened his first in-person store in Chicago, Illinois, with the help of his friends and his girlfriend, Mallory Hagedorn, all the while supplementing his income by selling QuickBooks software door-to-door.
According to the aforementioned series, Zach paid all his friends a 6-figure salary for helping him operate Fül, but neither he nor his girlfriend was walking away with any money. He thus decided to close its doors within a few months by claiming it wasn’t working and that his mentor, Howard, had offered him a much more lucrative job at his venture capital firm, Mavron. Zach and his girlfriend subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he claimed to be helming Mavron’s Entrepreneur Outreach Program, all the while also trying to make it as an actor.
Zach landed a few roles over time, including in ‘The Duel’ (2011) and ‘Feign’ (2012), before co-founding 1inMM Productions Company (aka One in a Million Productions Company) in 2013. His aim was to back new projects alongside the filmmaking duo of Julio and Diego Hallivis, while also potentially starring in them himself. However, his vision had changed by the time 2015 rolled around, by which point, he had been credited in additional productions such as ‘Nameless’ (2013), ‘Shifter’ (2014), and ‘Fury’ (2014).
In 2015, Zach led 1inMM Productions Company to begin seeking large-scale investors, reportedly in order to acquire, distribute, and produce content for a much broader mainstream audience. He even asserted that he would be dubbing international films for redistribution, going so far as to claim that they would acquire other projects to license to streaming services for a significant profit. However, this was reportedly a Ponzi scheme. While 1inMM’s 2015 annual report boasted that it had acquired and distributed 49 films without incurring a single loss, the reality was different.
After all, instead of actually doing what he promised, Zach was using the incoming money to fund his luxurious lifestyle, impress additional potential investors, and pay back earlier investors. Over a period of 5 years, he reportedly hosted several parties in Las Vegas, Nevada, bought a $5.7 million mansion in Beverlywood, and spent $706,000 on interior decorating. Moreover, he purchased cars, including a Mercedes-Benz and an Audi, for $605,000, spent $345,000 on luxury travel via a private jet or yacht, and made credit card payments worth at least $6.9 million, among other expenses.
Zach Horwitz’s Net Worth
It was in 2021 that Zach’s fraudulent schemes came to an end, as he could no longer repay his earlier investors, driving them to file official complaints against him. That’s when the FBI got involved and discovered that the actor using the stage name Zach Avery, having a total of 14 film credits, several of which were as extras, was running a Ponzi Scheme. He actually defrauded over 520 individuals of more than $650 million, out of which nearly $230 million went into pure losses, meaning he was the mastermind behind arguably the largest Ponzi Scheme in Hollywood history. As a result, Zach was arrested on charges of wire fraud on April 6, 2021; however, he eventually pleaded guilty to only one count of securities fraud on October 4 of the same year.
Consequently, on February 14, 2022, he was sentenced to serve 20 years in federal prison and was also ordered to pay approximately $230 million in restitution. According to records, Zach claimed to have had a net worth of close to $40 million during his prime; however, federal authorities have likely since seized all his assets and bank accounts to ensure his restitution payment. Yet, it’s imperative to note that $200 million out of the original $650 million is still missing, and it’s unclear if Zach is aware of its whereabouts or still somehow has access to it. So, taking all the aforementioned details into account, along with his legal expenses for the federal case and his divorce from the mother of his two kids, Mallory Hagedorn, Zach Horwitz’s official net worth is nil as of writing.
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