WASHINGTON, Sept 14 — Movie producer Nigel Sinclair and an Australian accountant have been indicted for an alleged scheme to conceal income and assets, the US Justice Department said yesterday.
Sinclair, 76, whose production credits include the 2013 Formula One film Rush and Snitch starring Dwayne Johnson, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday alongside Anthony Stewart, a chartered accountant in Australia, the department said in a statement.
According to the indictment, Sinclair, a dual US-UK citizen, was the co-owner in 2000 of a film production company called Intermedia.
Half of Sinclair's shares in Intermedia were held in the name of a Maltese entity, it said, and when the company was listed on a foreign stock exchange they were sold for approximately US$25 million.
“(Sinclair) and Stewart then conspired with others to conceal these proceeds by depositing them into nominee bank accounts in Switzerland,” the Justice Department said.
“Over the years, Sinclair allegedly used these proceeds to fly on private jets, purchase an $800,000 guitar owned by a famous rock musician, fund his next production company and build himself an 8,000 square foot vacation home in the Jackson Hole area of Wyoming,” it said.
Sinclair and Stewart are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a maximum term of five years in prison. Sinclair is also charged with filing false tax returns and obstruction of justice.
According to IMDb, Sinclair's production credits with his company White Horse Pictures include the 2016 documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years and Pavarotti in 2019.
He was also a co-producer of the Grammy-winning documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, directed by Martin Scorsese. — AFP
