‘The Apprentice’ Movie Producer David Brown Arrested For Covid Fraud & More, Faces 300 Years

A much-accused The Apprentice executive producer was arrested today by federal officials in South Carolina on fraud, fake Covid-19 teat costs, and other charges that almost put the sins depicted in the acclaimed Donald Trump original story flick to shame, almost.

Looking at around 300 years behind bars if found guilty on the 21-count grand jury indictment handed down last week, David Raymond Brown made a first appearance Wednesday in court in the Palmetto State. No plea was entered, but Brown will be transferred out to LA in the next month for an arraignment in the Golden State.

With nine counts of wire fraud,10 counts of transactional money laundering, and two counts of aggravated identity theft, the producer of the 2021 Jenna Ortega-led Fallout and seasoned production accountant will have a lot of explaining to do, to put if very gently. Having faced a slew of accusations over the past decade or so about having sticky fingers with other people’s money and crew wages in the past as well allegedly forging Kevin Spacey’s signature (for real), Brown, who spent a couple of months in the joint in Massachusetts at one point on another film related matter, is up against “nine counts of wire fraud, 10 counts of transactional money laundering, and two counts of aggravated identity theft,” says the Department of Justice.

For those of you who love math, the DOJ exclaims the statutory maximum sentence for those charges are “20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count, up to 10 years in federal prison for each money laundering count, and a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for each aggravated identity theft count.” If you don’t feel like doing the math, just trust me it’s a very long time when added up and Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bilal Essayli has brought the hammer down on what appears to multiple repeat offender Brown.

The detail rich August 20 indictment makes that pretty clear:

Beginning no later than in or about December 2021, and continuing through at least in or about August 2025, in Los Angeles County, within the Central District of California, and elsewhere, defendant BROWN, along with others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, knowingly and with the intent to defraud, devised, participated in, and executed a scheme to defraud the Film Production Companies, Victim 1, Victim 2, and others as to material matters, and to obtain money and property by means of material false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises, and the concealment of material facts.

As well as private school fees, luxury cars, (a 2025 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon and three Teslas, including a 2024 Cybertruck, say the feds), mortgage payments, a new pool, a home for his mother and more, a resume inflating Brown also used some of the allegedly stolen cash for $970,000 in payments connected to an unmade movie known as Untitled SLA. That was the working title for a flick Brown was going to apparently direct about the Symbionese Liberation Army’s infamous 1974 kidnapping of media heiress Patty Hearst.

As of this afternoon, Brown remains in federal custody as the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation unit continue to probe his alleged crimes.

This EP Brown case aside, the Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong-led Apprentice faced a lot of MAGA backlash when it debuted in Cannes last year. Still, while not exactly setting the box office on fire and likely having little effect on the election, the Ali Abbasi helmed Apprentice scored Oscar nominations for its stars.