Former MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe pleaded guilty Monday to a securities fraud charge, admitting that he conspired to deceive the public and investors about the sustainability of the company’s $9.95-a-month movie subscription service. Lowe, 72, faces a maximum of five years in federal prison.
His plea agreement has not yet been made public. “Mitch is a good man who is looking to move forward with his life,” said his attorneys, Margot Moss and David Oscar Markus, in a statement. “He has accepted responsibility for his actions in this case and will continue to try to make things right.
” Ted Farnsworth , the former CEO of parent company Helios and Matheson, is scheduled to face a trial on the same charges next March. Farnsworth, 62, has been in federal custody since August 2023, when his bond was revoked after he allegedly used company funds to pay for a sex worker. Farnsworth and Lowe were the architects of MoviePass’ doomed all-you-can-watch offering, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in investor losses in 2017 and 2018.
Investigators found that Lowe tried to stem the losses by throttling the service, forcing high-volume users to reset their passwords and verify their tickets. The two men were charged in November 2022 on counts of wire fraud and securities fraud. Lowe remains free on bond, and is due back in court in Miami on March 21 for a status conference.
Lowe published a memoir in 2022 in which he reflected on the downfall of MoviePass, entitled �.