Remington Chase, a former film producer who was accused of swindling investors out of at least $234 million, has been reported dead in the United Kingdom.
Chase, 65, died of liver failure on July 31 at Victoria Hospital in Blackpool, according to a death certificate provided to Variety by the Blackpool Registration Service.
His death was also confirmed by his wife, Linda Biron of Marina del Rey, Calif., who said he was a good person.
He got mixed up with some wrong people, she said in an interview. He was not out to hurt anybody. He was out to make good movies.
Chases death leaves a long trail of litigation, with numerous parties accusing him of defrauding them out of investment funds, real estate and loan proceeds.
Base Media, a China-based animation and VFX studio, sued Chase and an associate, Kevin Robl, in 2022, accusing them of a massive fraud against the companys investors.
Chase and Robl have not responded in court to any of the lawsuits filed against them. In June, Base Media obtained a $10 million default judgment against both of them. Chase was also stripped of a 5% stake in the company and a 15% share of the companys profits from Wish Dragon, an animated film, and the pair were ordered not to use Bases name to raise money.
Chase and another associate, Stefan Martirosian, produced several films about a decade ago, including End of Watch, Lone Survivor and Escape Plan. The L.A. Weekly reported in 2014 that they had each been convicted of cocaine trafficking and worked as federal informants, and were also accused of involvement in a Russian assassination plot.
More recently, Chase and Robl have been accused of using bundlers to raise funds from groups of investors for non-existent movie projects. Robl, who ran a company called Production Capital, has been sued multiple times. His whereabouts are unknown, although he has reportedly spent time in Spain and Mexico City.
In one such case, an investor alleged that he had been duped into investing $850,000 to help finance Bases VFX work on the film Meg 2: The Trench.
The investor, Talib Fakhri, sued Robl and Ibrahim Mohammed, the CFO of Production Capital, claiming that he was assured he would get his money back with 15% interest in 120 days.
Mohammed countered that he, too, was a victim of Robls scheme. Mohammed said he and his wife had lost $2 million and that Robl had disappeared with millions of dollars.
In June, a jury ordered Mohammed to pay nearly $1.7 million to Fakhri and another plaintiff. He is still fighting the case.
We are confident that Mr. Mohammed will ultimately prevail on all claims, because the evidence showed that he did not lie to anyone and that investors money was taken by Robl, not Mohammed, said Mohammeds attorney, John Rushing.
David Dworsky, who represented Fakhri, said in an interview that Chase was behind the scenes of the enterprise.
It was all a big revolving Ponzi scheme, Dworsky said. I dont think they had any involvement in Meg 2. I dont think there were any film projects.
Dan Wolfe, who owns an aviation company at the Hawthorne Municipal Airport, sued Chase and Robl in October 2021, claiming they had stolen nearly $3 million from him in a fraudulent loan scheme.
Guy Jamison, Wolfes attorney, said he would continue to pursue his case despite Chases death.
He still has his co-conspirators, he said. Theyre still alive. Hopefully well be able to get recourse from them.
Base Medias CEO, Chris Bremble, did not respond to a request for comment. His attorney also declined to comment.
In 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Chase for defrauding investors of Knightsbridge Entertainment. The charges alleged that he had diverted $9 million to personal use, including nearly $1 million that went to buy several Teslas, and $1.5 million in donations to USC. He settled the case without admitting wrongdoing.
Biron, who said she had been married to Chase for the last 15 years, said that he had very little money, and had been forced to sell his helicopter, his Hummer and his airplane.
He had nothing, Biron said. Everything he had he put into movies. He didnt even have money to call a lawyer to help him. If he was guilty of all this stuff, hed be rich.
Dan Andreiu, an actor and producer, said he had been communicating with Chase regularly over the last few months. He said that he had been convinced to send money for a film project and to buy the Hummer. He never received the Hummer, he said, and later learned that Chase had died.
Apparently there was nothing. There was just theft, he said. I was willing to give them a chance. But no, there was just pure theft.
Several people who have pursued claims against Chase acknowledged some skepticism that he had actually died, though his death was confirmed by a government record.
According to the certificate, Chase died of acute liver failure, a variceal bleed, and liver cirrhosis. The certificate lists Chases aliases, William Westwood and William Paul Elliott, which he had used earlier in his life. Most associates called him Bill.
Biron said he had been staying with a friend in Blackpool for a couple of weeks when he became ill and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He fell into a coma and did not recover, she said.
It was just a shock, she said. Im heartbroken over it.
Biron said she had him cremated. But for now, she said she does not have the money to have the ashes returned to the U.S. Ultimately, she said she hoped to spread his ashes at the beach.
He loved the water, she said.
She said he had not been sick before the trip, and had been excited about making Wish Dragon 2 a Base Media project.
He was only interested in raising money to make a good movie, she said. Everybody will blame him for everything. They cant go after him anymore. Hes at peace.