LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — A part-time actor from Orange County who claims to be the inspiration for HBO’s “Ballers” was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for swindling investors who thought they were buying into a cure for COVID-19.
Huntington Beach resident Keith Lawrence Middlebrook, 57, was sentenced on Monday to eight years and two months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
Middlebrook “solicited potential investors in California, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Colorado via text messages, videos and statements posted on YouTube and Instagram about his purported cure for COVID-19,” the release said.
The cure, dubbed QC20, and a treatment called QP20 were both frauds, officials added.
“These fraudulent claims included miraculous results from the prevention product and the cure, risk-free and 100 percent guaranteed ‘enormous returns’ on investments, and that former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson was a director and officer of Middlebrook’s company,” the release said.
Middlebrook’s sentence was impacted by his lying on the witness stand about his relationship with Johnson, prosecutors said.
On his IMDb page, Middlebrook touts his connections to celebrities, featuring photos with Chris Rock, Will Smith and Megan Fox.
He also delves further into what he claims is the history of the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson TV show “Ballers.”
“The Hit HBO TV Show ‘ballers’ was written by ‘Entourage’ Stephen Levinson based on Keith Middlebrook’s Career and Real Life, also the Title was taken directly from Keith’s domain ‘Keith Middlebrook Ballers.com’ online 10 years ago. Stephen originally met Keith on the set of ‘Entourage’ of which Keith appears in 14 Episodes and earned his SAG/AFTRA card,” the publicly editable database says.
Other roles of Middlebrook include “Iron Man 2” and “Moneyball,” and “he has been told he is an awesome actor and writer by many,” the bio says.
“Because of his physique, appearance, incredible creativity, innovation and genius Keith Middlebrook is known as a Super Entrepreneur Icon and dubbed ‘The Real Iron Man’, a Businessman who owns and operates over 20 companies and rising.His appearance in Films and TV have been mainly for Branding, Social Media and Fun,” the bio adds.
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — A part-time actor from Orange County who claims to be the inspiration for HBO’s “Ballers” was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for swindling investors who thought they were buying into a cure for COVID-19. Huntington Beach resident Keith Lawrence Middlebrook, 57, was sentenced on Monday to eight years […]
Leave a Reply