Jason Cloth, a Hollywood film financier whose executive producer credits include Joker, Babylon, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago on 29 July 2026 on allegations of running a $100 million Ponzi scheme. Cloth, 60, a resident of Beverly Hills, California, was arrested in Los Angeles on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois (DOJ press release).

The indictment charges Cloth with seven counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors say he lied to investors about how their money would be used — collecting funds ostensibly for a film project and a gaming platform, then diverting the cash to pay off earlier investors in a Canadian real estate venture. The criminal indictment seeks $12.25 million in reimbursement. Each wire-fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The FBI's Chicago Field Office is actively seeking additional victims (Variety).

Cloth's core sales pitch, according to Chicago attorney Alexander Loftus — who filed a class action on behalf of 137 investors — was that he had invested in Joker, the 2019 Todd Phillips film that grossed over $1 billion worldwide. That hit became the calling card for raising money on subsequent projects. The Chicago class action alleges investors were swindled out of $80 million intended to finance Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Monkey Man, and other films. The plaintiffs reached a settlement last year with adviser Sanford Schmidt and are still pursuing roughly $60 million from Schmidt's insurance carrier.

The federal charges are the latest in a long chain of legal trouble. Creative Wealth Media Finance, Cloth's company, declared bankruptcy in Canada in 2023. The Ontario Securities Commission alleged that Cloth raised approximately $500 million from 500 investors across the United States and Canada over the decade preceding its filing, accusing him of raising more money for film and television projects than was required and then diverting the surplus to other uses. Among those diversions: $50 million in unsecured loans to a developer building condominiums in Kingston, Ontario — loans that remained unpaid at the time of the bankruptcy (Variety).

In 2024, after a two-day civil trial in West Palm Beach, Florida, a jury ordered Cloth to pay $19.6 million to an investor who had put money into a television project. Cloth did not attend the trial; he told a judge beforehand that he was incapable of representing himself and planned to be at the Cannes Film Festival. He appealed the verdict, but an appellate court upheld it last year.

What makes the case striking is the gap between the glamour of the films on Cloth's résumé and the mechanics alleged by prosecutors. A Ponzi scheme — named after the 1920s fraudster Charles Ponzi — pays early investors with money from newer ones rather than from legitimate returns, collapsing when new money stops flowing. Cloth's credits placed him inside some of the most visible productions of the past decade. The indictment now places him inside a courtroom.