Team Communications ex-CEO indicted

Drew Savitch Levin, former chief executive of defunct TV producer Team Communications Group Inc., was indicted on charges he lied to investors, auditors and regulators.

Levin, 54, was accused of inflating the company’s revenue by paying customers to buy Team Communications’ made-for-television programs, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said Wednesday.

Levin received a $335,000 bonus in 1999 based on the company’s profitable performance when, in fact, it lost money that year, the office said.

In 2001, Team Communications said Levin had resigned and the Los Angeles company would take a charge of about $21 million as it investigated whether acquisition and distribution deals “lacked economic substance.” The company went out of business the next year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Levin in 2005. His lawyer, Peter Sheridan, didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

In the 13-count grand jury indictment, Levin is charged with conspiracy, falsifying company books and records as well as making false statements in SEC filings, making false statements to Team Communications’ auditors and lying in an SEC deposition. If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 200 years in prison.