Movie Director Sentenced for Abusing Film Tax Credits

A film director and producer who inflated his expenses for shooting two movies on Cape Cod in order to claim larger Massachusetts film tax credits has been sentenced to between two and three years in prison and 10 years’ probation.

Daniel Adams pleaded guilty in April to charges of larceny and making a false claim. Adams received over $4.7 million in tax credits for the 2009 movie “The Lightkeepers,” starring Richard Dreyfuss, Blythe Danner, Bruce Dern and Julie Harris, and the 2008 picture “The Golden Boys,” with the late David Carradine, Rip Torn, Bruce Dern, Mariel Hemingway and Charles Durning (see Director Indicted in $4.7 Million Film Tax Credit Scheme). They both included scenes on Cape Cod.

Among the inflated expenses claimed was one for $2.5 million to Dreyfuss, when in fact the “Jaws” star only received $400,000.

On Thursday, a judge ordered Adams, 51, to pay the commonwealth of Massachusetts nearly $4.4 million in restitution, according to the Los Angeles Times. Adams apologized to the court, the commonwealth and the Revenue Department at his sentencing, according to the Boston Globe.

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