Another Television Scam

Many congressmen are lawyers but Congressman Dana Rohrabacher was different. This California native was an aspiring screenwriter. Rohrabacher’s screenplay for a film called ‘Baja’ had drawn attention from a handful of Hollywood producers over the years but a deal never came through. That is, until 2003, when Rohrabacher became reacquainted with a man named Joseph Medawar, a Hollywood producer who had achieved some modest success over the years.

Medawar told Rohrabacher about his newly established production company, ‘Steeple Entertainment’, which would be producing a television show called ‘DHS’, a dramatic action-adventure series based on the Department of Homeland Security. Medawar showed Rohrabacher the DHS promotional trailer and offered to produce ‘Baja ‘under the Steeple name. Rohrabacher thought this was a great idea and accepted $23,000 for the screenplay.

Rohrabacher also expressed interest in Medawar’s DHS series and began introducing Medawar to many influential figures in Washington.What Rohrabacher and his associates did not realize was that Medawar would use these connections to present an air of legitimacy to dozens of investors for his DHS series. Over the next two years, Medawar would use the real DHS seal without permission and fraudulently claim that President George W Bush endorsed the series.

Medawar raked in more than $3 million from more than fifty investors to fund his lavish lifestyle. Behind the scenes, it was all a fraud and Medawar would not produce any DHS shows or sell the series to a television network. When the FBI and IRS caught on, Medawar’s con game ground to a screeching halt, leaving a trail of bankruptcy and distress in his wake.