Kiarash “Kia” Jam, an executive producer of “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” has agreed to pay nearly $500,000 to settle fraud charges by the SEC for his role in misrepresenting over $6 million raised from investors, the SEC announced Tuesday.
According to the SEC’s order, Jam and David R. Bergstein, who was convicted of fraud and sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence in June 2018, raised approximately $5.6 million from 11 investors between September 2012 and March 2013 with the plan of taking the publicly-traded auction site Bidz.com Inc. private.
Jam lied about the amounts raised, the number of shares for sale and the timing of the acquisition of Bidz.com, according to the SEC, which also said that Jam “stole over $200,000 of investors’ proceeds, using the majority of the stolen funds to pay for, among other things, expensive meals out, alcohol, and travel and entertainment.”
The SEC said Jam and Bergstein between December 2012 and March 2014 raised approximately $580,000 from six investors to spin off a separate business unit of Bidz. Jam again lied to investors about the amounts raised, the number of shares for sale, and that a large, well-established, broker-dealer would underwrite the transaction, the SEC said, which accused Jam of stealing $154,400 in investors’ proceeds, using the money to pay his office rent, insurance, car expenses, and gym membership, among other things.
The SEC said it uncovered Jam’s frauds during its initial investigation into Bergstein’s conduct, which resulted in the SEC filing fraud charges against Bergstein in November 2016. Bergstein was indicted for that same conduct, convicted, and sentenced on June 27, 2018. Bergstein settled the SEC’s related charges.
Jam’s attorney said his client has not been found guilty of criminal activity or civil wrongdoing and settled the case with the SEC “without admitting or denying the findings.”