Renaissance Millennium Pictures (RMP) of Newport Beach is being sued for fraud by an Australian investor who claims he was duped out of $105,000.
According to a lawsuit filed this week in Orange County Superior Court, Antoine P. Musu says that RMP chairman of the board Carlo Edoardo Vallarino enticed him in 2004 to first invest in Italian film feature, Eugenio I Love You.
But according to the lawsuit, Vallarino's company questionably presented itself as an up and coming “global” film operation and took Musu's money after RMP's corporate status had expired for lack of paying taxes.
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Musu also claims that after he invested in Eugenio I Love You,
Vallarino solicited his investments in other film projects including, The Rhymer, A Sense of Place, Wally McDougall, Agent Dingledorf, Twisted Parables, One Fat Summer and Tower of Gebora.
When it appeared that none of the projects would succeed, Musu claims he sought access to RMP's books and was repeatedly denied.
“RMP
never theatrically distributed Eugenio I Love You, the lawsuit
asserts. “None of the other projects touted by Vallarino ever
materialized. Musu is informed and believes that RMP performed no
corporate activities other than raise money from unsuspecting
investors.”
Vallarino and RMP, which is registered in Nevada but maintains executive offices in Newport Beach, have not yet filed a response in court. Efforts to reach Vallarino for comment failed. A number provided by the company's website has been disconnected.
its website, the company touts itself as a producer of wholesome films
that “depict poignant tales that will uplift the human spirit and bring
messages of hope, compassion, redemption, tolerance, love and respect
for human dignity.”
The website also lists Vallarino as chairman of the board at Vendome Services and Consulting (VSC) Worldwide Corporation. He has also served as a juror at the acclaimed Newport Beach Film Festival.
The case has been assigned to Superior Court Judge Charles Margines.
–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.