TV Executive Charged with Fraud

LOS ANGELES, March 20: Drew Levin, the founder
of the defunct production outfit Team Communications Group, has been indicted
by a federal grand jury on charges that include falsifying company records and
lying to investors.

If found guilty of all 13 indictment counts,
Levin could be sentenced to up to 200 years in prison, Bloomberg News reports.
The charges include conspiracy, falsifying company records and making false
statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Team Communications’ productions included Total
Recall—2070 with Alliance Atlantis and ProSieben
and Earthquake in New York. In the late ’90s it was
actively involved in the German market, inking deals to produce big-budget
event TV, at the time scoring slots with the likes of VOX and M6. In 1999, Team
said it owned the rights to 3,000 hours of programming.

After Team Communications Group folded, Levin
relaunched his venture as TMC Entertainment in 2001 with a focus on producing
and distributing reality fare, documentaries and kids’ programming. The most
recent news on TMC’s website is dated July 2006, when PBS announced it would
air the company’s The Route to Christianity.

—By Mansha Daswani