Director who abused film tax credits gets prison sentence

The director of two movies shot on Cape Cod has been sentenced to a maximum of three years in state prison after admitting that he exaggerated expenses when he applied for Massachusetts film tax credits.

Daniel Adams pleaded guilty last month to larceny and making a false claim when he applied for state film tax credits for the 2008 movie “The Golden Boys,” with Bruce Dern and David Carradine, and “The Lightkeepers,” a 2009 movie starring Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner.

Prosecutors said Adams overcharged the state by $4.7 million for expenses related to those movies. A Boston judge Thursday ordered Adams to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution and serve 10 years on probation after his prison sentence.

This case is one of several scandals nationwide involving abuses of film tax credit programs.

In January, filmmaker Harel Goldstein of Calabasas pleaded guilty to defrauding Iowa’s now-defunct film tax credit program. Former Iowa Film Office Director Tom Wheeler was convicted last year of one count of misconduct over his handling of state film tax credits. And in 2009, a former top film office official in Louisiana was given a two-year prison sentence for steering tax credits to a local producer.

richard.verrier@latimes.com