Northridge Man Indicted in $2M Kickback Scheme

Two men, including one from Northridge, were arrested by federal agents when they were indicted for their roles in a $2-million kickback scheme involving the film and distribution firm Lionsgate, a federal official said Saturday.

Larry D. Collins, 50, of Northridge, and 31-year-old Roccia James Cuccia of Downey, were charged in a 14-count indictment returned Thursday by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. The indictment included allegations of wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, Laura Eimiller of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office said in a statement.

Lionsgate just released the blockbuster film, The Hunger Games.

Cuccia and Collins had an initial appearance before a federal magistrate in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles Friday and were granted bond. If convicted of all charges alleged in the indictment, Cuccia faces a maximum sentence of 226 years in federal prison, Collins 200, 200 years in federal prison.

Cuccia started working as a senior buyer at Lionsgate, a film and distribution company, in January 2006 and was responsible for acquiring cardboard advertising used to display Lionsgate DVD and Blue Ray disks at retail stores, according to the indictment.

• Click here to see the indictment.

Cuccia allegedly used Collins as a vendor to supply the display cases to retail stores from 2006 through 2011. The two men reportedly devised a scheme where Lionsgate was overbilled for the number of display cases ordered from Collins by Lionsgate. Collins would then generate fraudulent invoices for the inflated purchase orders, the indictment alleges.

Lionsgate sent payment for the inflated purchase orders to a third party, who would then wire a substantial  percentage of the Lionsgate funds to Collins. Collins would then wire a portion of these funds to Cuccia's bank account,  according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that Cuccia and Collins caused losses to Lionsgate totally approximately $2,064,000. The indictment listed 10 wire transfers totaling over $750,000  which represents funds by Collins as part of the scheme, a portion of which were then wired to Cuccia.

Cuccia is alleged to have used part of the funds to purchase a 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid and a 2006 Mercedes-Benz R350, both of which were seized on Friday by federal agents. The indictment further alleges that Cuccia failed to report his portion of the fraudently received funds as income on his 2006 and 2007 federal tax returns.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service- Criminal Investigation and the Santa Monica Police Department.

-- City News Service