A part-time actor from Huntington Beach convicted of soliciting investments for a phony COVID cure in the midst of the pandemic was sentenced on Monday, Jan. 6, to eight years, two months in federal prison.
Keith Lawrence Middlebrook, 57, was also fined $25,000 a year after a jury convicted him of 11 counts of wire fraud in connection to a company peddling a bogus cure for COVID during the pandemic’s early days.
In March 2020, Middlebrook — whose screen credits include bit parts in “Moneyball” and “Iron Man 2” — used videos and messages on YouTube and Instagram to solicit potential investors in California, Nevada, New York, Texas and Colorado about what he called a cure for COVID.
According to prosecutors, Middlebrook claimed to have developed a “patent-pending” COVID cure and treatment that he told investors was risk-free, 100 percent guaranteed and would lead to enormous financial returns.
In an apparent effort to bolster his claims, Middlebrook falsely claimed that Los Angeles Laker legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson was a director and officer at one of his companies, that a party in Dubai had offered to purchase his companies for $10 billion, and that he had already secured funding from seven investors who each had infused $750,000 to $1 million into the companies.
Prosecutors allege — and a federal judge agreed — that Middlebrook lied on the witness stand about his claimed relationship and business dealing with Johnson. According to prosecution filings, Johnson himself testified during the trial that he never supported, invested in or served as a leader in Middlebrook’s company, and that he did not know the part-time actor.
The purported businesses were actually just shell companies, prosecutors say, that Middlebrook was using to peddle the bogus COVID cure and treatment.
Middlebrook was arrested by the FBI in March 2020 after delivering pills that he claimed would help fight a Coronavirus infection to an undercover agent posing as an investor.
The defendant asked for at least $1 million each from four potential investors, and $400,000 from the agent, prosecutors said. There is no indication he ever collected anything.
The same day a federal jury returned a guilty verdict against him, Middlebrook posted a video on Instagram criticizing the jurors, prosecutors noted.
“Anyway, a group of people convinced a brain-dead stupid idiot liberal group of people of things that weren’t true about a company that never received or accepted a dollar,” Middlebrook said in the video, according to prosecutors. “In fact, they declined all funds as they were building the company. This group of people convinced these dumb stupid liberal idiots of lies. …
“Everything is being taken care of at the Trump level, the higher level, the Trump level,” Middlebrook added, according to a prosecution filing.
An attorney representing Middlebrook in a defense-sentencing brief denied that Middlebrook committed perjury, arguing that “as we all know, celebrities are given more credence and credibility by juries.”
In asking for a lighter sentence, the defense noted that Middlebrook maintains his innocence and argued that “there was no actual harm done to anyone.”