A Hollywood agent stole $1.8 million from struggling actors on reveals resembling “Law & Order” — claiming a few of their checks had been late due to “earthquakes” whereas having fun with spa remedies on the 4 Seasons, Manhattan officers mentioned Tuesday.
Mark Measures, the disgraced former proprietor of KMR Expertise, bilked 160 actors out of the hunk of dough along with stealing from six workers who labored at his company, in line with a 40-count indictment unsealed in Manhattan Supreme Court docket.
The washed-up agent, 60, was fueled by his illicit greed to fund his private way of life — which included the flowery self-care resort classes in addition to splurging $55,000 on seats on the Crypto.com Enviornment, the house of the Los Angeles Lakers, mentioned Manhattan Assistant District Lawyer Rachana Pathak.
“This was during the time that actors and agents were begging for money,” Pathak advised the decide. “Raiding escrow accounts is black-letter embezzlement.”
Measures additionally allegedly used the cash for purchases at high-end outfitters resembling Zegna, Saks Fifth Avenue and Revolve, to repay collectors, settle AMEX payments and make automobile funds.
The scheme, which ran between June 2021 and March 2024, stole residuals and holding charges from wannabe-bigtime actors who had been represented in KMR, together with these working in movie, commercials and voiceover work nationwide.
Measures, who lives in Los Angeles, would discover any excuse within the e book to not pay his shoppers, blaming the whole lot from banks, “earthquakes, power blackouts, sick employees, and mail delays” — till he in the end ghosted them, prosecutors mentioned.
Certainly one of his victims, Joe Gately — a Harlem actor who has appeared in episodes of “Law & Order” and “Blue Bloods” — advised The Put up after Tuesday’s arraignment that Measures owed him $6,500 over a drug-advertisement marketing campaign in 2021.
“He’s a thief,” Gately, 59, seethed exterior the courtroom. “We’ve all wondered where the money went, so today offered a little information. It’s not surprising at all he couldn’t pay.”
Messages together with emails launched by the DA’s workplace confirmed Measures’ shoppers demanding their cash from the washed-up agent, together with one the place an alleged sufferer is in search of hundreds of {dollars} owed to her for desperately wanted medical therapy.
“Those funds (that seem to have been stolen by you at this point) were to be used for my IVF treatment,” the emailed message reads. “I am in the doctors office in tears as you’ve put me in a really challenging financial position by stealing my almost $20,000 from me.”
Measures can also be accused of embezzling $26,000 from wages supposed for the retirement accounts of six staff at his New York Metropolis-based workplace.
He pleaded not responsible at his arraignment and refused to reply whether or not he stole cash from his shoppers.
Choose Althea Drysdale ordered Measures to show over his passport earlier than releasing him, as the fees weren’t bail-eligible.
“As much as you hail from California, you must be here on any day that I tell you to be here,” the decide warned.
KMR operated as a franchise of the Display Actors Guild and the American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists union till it was suspended in March 2024.
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg urged victims to contact his workplace because the investigation stays ongoing.
“Rather than pay the actors and employees, the defendants used their hard-earned money to fund his lavish lifestyle,” Bragg mentioned in a press release.
Measures is due again in court docket July 15.
