A major Chinese visual effects studio has sued two producers accusing them of engineering a brazen con spanning nearly a decade that’s left the company and other investors in the hole for over $234 million.
Base Media claims it was swindled by a pair of producers, Remington Chase and Kevin Robl, who forged documents and impersonated its chief executive to secure sizable loans that, unknown to Base, signed away property and film equity rights. The Beijing-based company says the men used the loans to negotiate an ownership stake in Base while pocketing millions of dollars that were borrowed in its name.
“They spent several years cultivating a business and personal relationship with Base and its CEO by falsely representing to Base their character, their contacts, and their intentions, so that they could convince their investors that Base was actually involved in their investments,” reads the complaint filed on Thursday in California federal court. “Once they had garnered Base’s trust, they misappropriated Base’s name, forging loan agreements and investment agreements and signatures of Base agents, including Base’s CEO, creating fake Base email accounts, creating fake Base entities, opening bank accounts on behalf of those fake Base entities, and directing funds they were purportedly raising for Base to themselves.”
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Base is one of the leading visual effects studios in Asia. Its credits include working on blockbuster movies and TV shows, including Avengers, Iron Man and The Mandalorian, and winning Emmys for HBO’s The Pacific and Boardwalk Empire.
The company now faces demands for repayments of considerable loans that’s spawned various lawsuits from investors who were also swindled in the scheme. According to the complaint, it’s notified federal investigators and Chinese detectives have initiated a criminal investigation with at least one Chinese national in detention.
Chase and Robl could not be reached for comment. Tom Lewis, who has represented Chase in other matters, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chase has served as a producer on The Lone Survivor, Broken City and 2 Guns, among other films. The Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020 convicted him for spearheading a scheme in which he stole millions of dollars from investors by claiming that the money would be used for financing movies. He has also been convicted for cocaine trafficking, has gone by multiple aliases and has served as a federal informant.
Production Capital and other affiliated entities allegedly belonging to Chase and Robl named in the complaint could not be reached for comment.
According to the complaint, Base in 2013 sought financing to enhance its special effects business and to venture into the production of full feature live-action and animation films. United Talent Agency introduced Base’s chief executive, Chris Bemble, to Chase to discuss potential funding. The head of Film Finances, one of the largest bonding companies in the world, similarly vouched for Chase.
Base says Chase earned its trust with dependable financing on numerous projects, including Skyfire and Lord of the West. It then agreed to partner with him and Robl in building a studio in Malaysia. Through his company, Production Capital, Chase committed to fully funding construction and operational costs in exchange for a half ownership stake in the facility.
The producers proceeded to ramp up financing efforts to get the studio funded, the lawsuit states. They allegedly used intimate knowledge of the company’s finances learned from their prior dealings to deceive potential investors and told Base that the funds were borrowed from lenders contracting directly with Production Capital and that the company, in turn, would provide the funds under separate arrangements.
Base alleges that Chase and Roble entered into numerous fraudulent agreements executed with forged signatures that purported to sell Base’s property and equity interests in various projects as well as listing Base’s assets as security.
Using representations that Base has no obligation to any underlying lenders for the financing of the company’s new studio in Malaysia as leverage, Chase was able to negotiate for equity in the company, cash and a portion of film revenue streams in exchange for forgiving a portion of Base’s debt, the complaint states.
“Base had no idea that Defendant Chase’s representations were lies, and that other parties would soon surface demanding money from Base based on forged agreements,” writes attorney Aaron Dyer in the filing.
The truth surfaced in 2021 when investors began to demand repayment of their loans that purported to sign away Base’s equity in various productions and its share of revenue streams as security, according to the complaint. The company is on the hook for at least $234 million in loans taken out by the producers, which could be much higher since an unknown film production company did not disclose the amount it loaned Base.
Base has been named as a defendant in at least one of several lawsuits against Robl and Chase from investors who say they have not received their share of profits from movies they say they bought a stake in. Other investors have sued the producers for embezzling funds.
