Theodore Farnsworth, former chief executive and chairman of MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), pleaded guilty on January 7, 2025, to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Federal prosecutors say he misled investors about MoviePass’s $9.95-a-month “unlimited” offer and HMNY’s business. The plea also covers a separate securities-fraud conspiracy involving Vinco Ventures, so the criminal case was not limited to the MoviePass plan.
What was MoviePass’s $9.95 unlimited plan?
In 2017, after HMNY acquired a majority ownership interest in MoviePass, the service introduced a subscription advertised as allowing unlimited movie-theater visits with no blackout dates for $9.95 per month. Subscribers paid a flat monthly fee for tickets.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Farnsworth and co-conspirators represented to investors that the plan had been tested, could be sustained, and would be profitable or break even on subscriptions alone. Prosecutors say they knew it was instead a temporary marketing tactic intended to attract subscribers, increase HMNY’s share price, and draw investors. The DOJ says the plan lost money.
Prosecutors also say employees were directed to throttle frequent users to ease cash pressure, limiting use of a service marketed as unlimited. They allege Farnsworth made misleading claims about HMNY’s other revenue streams, falling ticket costs per subscriber, and supposed “big data” and artificial-intelligence capabilities for analyzing and monetizing subscriber data. The DOJ says HMNY lacked those capabilities and had not incorporated them into the MoviePass app. The DOJ’s account of the plea and alleged schemes describes these as investor-facing misrepresentations; it does not mean the consumer plan’s advertised terms were themselves the only subject of the case.
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What did Farnsworth plead guilty to?
On January 7, 2025, Farnsworth, then 62 and a Miami resident, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to one count of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. HMNY was publicly traded, while MoviePass was privately held.
The DOJ describes two distinct periods and schemes:
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- HMNY and MoviePass: August 2017 through March 2019. Prosecutors say representations about the $9.95 plan and HMNY’s business misled investors.
- Vinco Ventures: November 2020 through September 2024. Farnsworth also pleaded guilty to a separate securities-fraud conspiracy involving Vinco.
The MoviePass allegations should not be conflated with the later Vinco matter: they are separate conduct within the broader case. The DOJ’s case page identifies the matter as docket 22-20521-CR in the Southern District of Florida.
How does the case involve former MoviePass CEO Mitchell Lowe?
The DOJ case page records that former MoviePass CEO J. Mitchell Lowe pleaded guilty on September 16, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Farnsworth entered his separate pleas on January 7, 2025. The page lists both developments in the case record: DOJ case information.
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What penalties and next court date are listed?
The DOJ lists maximum statutory prison terms of 20 years for Farnsworth’s securities-fraud count and five years for the conspiracy count. Those are legal maximums, not a sentence imposed or a prediction. The judge determines any sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and statutory factors.
As of the DOJ page’s July 22, 2026 update, the next listed event was a status conference scheduled for December 11, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. The page does not give a sentencing date, and it cautions that court dates can change on short notice. A status conference should not be described as a sentencing hearing.
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