Farouk "Frank" Agrama, is an American director, producer and writer. He is founder and former chief executive officer of Harmony Gold USA, Inc. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Agrama made a number of low-budget films which included The Godfather's Friend, Queen Kong and Dawn of the Mummy. He also began selling broadcast rights from Paramount Pictures which he then sold to his friend, former Italian Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi'sMediasetmedia company. In 1983, he secured a deal with the South African Broadcasting Corporation to distribute the controversial miniseries Shaka Zulu. In the same year, he founded Harmony Gold USA, Inc. Despite Shaka Zulus massive success worldwide, Agrama's skillful negotiations left SABC to actually lose money while Harmony Gold kept most of the profit. Harmony Gold would eventually be known for producing the film , other Robotech animated works and the 1993 miniseries Heidi. On October 26, 2012, Agrama was convicted after a lengthy trial involving the buying and selling of US film rights to the Mediaset media company at inflated prices. As his age exceeded 70 years, he was exempted from direct imprisonment and served no actual jail time. According to the Los Angeles Times, on November 21, 2006 prosecutors in Milan, Italy charged Agrama, along with former Italian Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi, and ten others in a trial over tax fraud, embezzlement and false accounting at Mediaset. In 2013, Agrama and several others, including Mediaset Vice Chairman Pier Silvio Berlusconi, son of Silvio Berlusconi, and the Hong Kong-based Wiltshire Group of Companies were placed on trial for tax evasion and embezzlement with the broadcasting rights firm, Mediatrade. In 2014, all parties were acquitted in the first instance due to expiring statute of limitations. A new appeals hearing took place on January 20, 2016. All charges against Agrama and five others were dropped, while Mediaset CEO Pier-Silvio Berlusconi and Chairman Fedele Confalonieri were sentenced to 14 months imprisonment.
Legal problems
Tax-fraud conviction in Mediaset trial (1988-98)
The Mediaset trial was launched in April 2005, with indictment of 14 persons for having committed: false accounting and embezzlement in order to mask payments of substantial "black funds", committed in 1988–94. tax fraud equal in total to more than €62 million, committed in 1988–98. Both indictments were related to achievement of personal tax evasion, through illicit trade of movie rights between Mediaset and secret fictive foreign companies situated in tax haven nations, causing fictive losses for Mediaset, with the trade gains being accumulated by the foreign companies owned by the indicted tax fraudsters, who ultimately had the gains paid out as personal profit without paying tax in Italy. On 26 October 2012, Agrama was sentenced to three years of punishment by an Italian court for tax evasion. The charges were in relation to a scheme to purchase overseas film rights at inflated prices through offshore companies. The three-year term was never served in accord with a 2006 amnesty law intended to reduce prison overcrowding. Agrama and his co-defendants were also ordered to pay a 10 million euro fine.
Acquittal in Mediatrade trial
In October 2011, Paddy Chan Mei-yiu and Katherine Hsu May-chun, along with nine others, were indicted by Milan court and charged with buying rights for US television series and movies, then reselling them to broadcasting rights firm Mediatrade at inflated prices and laundering the money in a complex scheme. The four companies allegedly involved in this scheme were Wiltshire Trading, Harmony Gold, CS Secretaries and Loong Po Management. According to prosecutors, Chan met Agrama in Cannes, France in the late 1970s at a trade fair and they decided to form a partnership to trade movie rights internationally. Chan set up a Hong Kong-based Harmony Gold Limited in 1979, records from the city's Companies Registry show. In the same year, Agrama set up Agrama Film Enterprises on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Four years later, he set up Harmony Gold USA. He later also became the Los Angeles representative of another Hong Kong company established by Chan, Wiltshire Trading. Prosecutors estimated the illicit profits between 1988 and 1999 amounted to US$170 million. Earlier in 2005, Swiss investigators froze 150 million francs at a UBS branch in Lugano belonging to Harmony Gold, Wiltshire Trading and other companies. On July 24, 2014, Variety reported that some of the charges have been dropped due to expiring statute of limitations. An appeals hearing is set to take place January 20, 2016. On March 18, 2016 Hollywood Reporter reported that at the January 20, 2016 appeal Frank Agrama was confirmed acquitted. Five other people, including Paddy Chan Mei-yiu and Katherine Hsu May-chun, were confirmed acquitted. Mediaset CEO Silvio Berlusconi and Chairman Fedele Confalonieri were sentenced and received the same 14-month sentence.
