Former MoviePass executives indicted for fraud, "attempted scam"

MoviePass may be relaunched, but the former CEOs of the service are still in trouble.

The former CEO of MoviePass and the former CEO of the parent company of MoviePass have been charged with four counts of fraud. They each face a maximum of 20 years in prison if found guilty.

The charges were made public by the Department of Justice a little over a month after the SEC filed charges against the two men.

The DOJ and the SEC claim that MoviePass's "unlimited" plan, where customers could pay $9.95 a month to see unlimited movies in theaters, had been tested and proven to be sustainable. MoviePass lost money and was accused of trying to prevent customers from seeing movies in order to shut down.

The DOJ claims that the false claims were made in order to bolster the stock price of the company and attract more investors, knowing that the $9.95 unlimited plan was a marketing ploy. Farnsworth and Lowe are accused of making fraudulent statements about using big data and artificial intelligence to monetize subscriber data.

The case is being investigated by the FBI. The public's faith in our financial markets is eroded by attempts to scam them. The perpetrators of these types of frauds will be held responsible for their actions in the criminal justice system if the FBI is able to uncover them.

Chris Bond said in a statement that Farnsworth would fight the charges. "As with the SEC filing, Mr. Farnsworth is confident that the facts will demonstrate that he has acted in good faith, and his legal team will contest the allegations in the indictment until his vindicated," said Bond.

The new version of MoviePass doesn't include Farnsworth and Lowe.