Mone't Inc. Mone't Films, Paul Wiltz, Denita Scott Wiltz Film Financing Scam Memphis, Tennessee

21st of Nov, 2011 by User864404

We began doing business with Mone't Inc and Paul Wiltz back in January 2011. At the time, we were desperate filmmakers, seeking a way to receive the funding for our feature film, which was at the time, slated around $1.2 million dollars. We had our inital funding fall through, so when we needed a lifeline, we felt like he might be the one. We were introduced through another party, who assisted us in conversing with Mone't and Mr. Wiltz. In our first conversation, we were told we needed to pay them a retainer fee of $2,500 dollars. We used our available lines of credit to make this happen. He said normally, he didn't take projects on without ten-to-fifteen percent available for "development funds," but he would put us through after "talking it over with his board of directors." We had our ducks in a row, which included a full cast and crew, and we were ready to go. Mr. Wiltz was unhappy at who we had placed in our cast, along with our budget, and decided to blow them all out and request new talent. During this time, we employed a casting director to find new actors to be in the project. We made a lot of end roads and were able to secure the basic agreements with talent to satisfy Mr. Wiltz and his "collective of investors." However, sixty days into the process, which breached the agreement, Mr. Wiltz did not send our package to his investors. Mr. Wiltz put in motion an agreement for distribution through a company, who wanted to charge us for distributing the film and supervising production on the film. Mr. Wiltz also told us that this distributor was going to put forth the ten-to-fifteen percent, which would make up what we lacked in our "development fund." Upon overseeing the contract, we decided that it was in our best interest to reject the deal, as it didn't state that we would receive ten-to-fifteen percent from this distributor in development funds. (Word to the wise: Walk into any Hollywood studio and tell them that you have 85-90% of your budget in funding and you want a distribution deal and 10-15% of your budget... and they will take that deal.) One of the talent's legal representation wanted to reach out to determine the validity of the deal, which, in an ambush manuever, Mr. Wiltz told the lawyer that we didn't have our ten-to-fifteen percent, which was news to us. At this time, the director on the film had quit his job, as we were told repeatedly by Mr. Wiltz that "things were coming along." After this ambush, Wiltz and the director had a frank conversation, where Wiltz bullied him into the distribution agreement, in which the distributor said they would make up the ten-to-fifteen percent by "monetizing tax credits." Our production team had experience with monetizing tax credits, so why we would need his help was beyond us. Speaking with the distributor, it was clear that Mr. Wiltz had gotten him in over his head with this deal. We received the letter of interest from a hedge fund and not an actual investor group, which we were responsible for $640,000, so they could lend us 10.4 million for production. All they needed was an attestement letter and a profit/loss statement. We didn't originally have a profit/loss, so Denita (Mone't CFO) said she could draw one up for an additional $500. We balked, as we do have a CPA on board with our project who could do it for free. When told of this matter, Mr. Wiltz was not happy that we wanted to do it on our own, but wouldn't be "misogynistic" about our choice. (Again, I fail to see how his displeasure of using our own CPA has to deal with hatred toward another sexual gender.) Mr. Wiltz began scouring the internet and found other funders, who were willing to do the funding, but required certain money down. Again, since we didn't have the ten-to-fifteen percent, we were still going to be required to provide this money to activate these lenders. We brought in another party, who is tied into a lot of angel investors and funders. When she started doing her due diligence on Mr. Wiltz, some of these scam reports began showing up, as well as every bit of information she had been told to "check out" was coming back completely false. He had released his executive vice president not too long before we decided this wasn't going to be funded. We started making our own phone calls to people he said he funded. Not one film has ever been funded by Mone't Films or Paul Wiltz. He has no IMDb credits and when one of my producers asked for his credits, he scoffed and said he was offended by the remark, stating his "record speaks for itself." Unfortunately, there is no record for Mr. Wiltz. So here is the bold truth for anyone who wants to get in line with Mr. Wiltz and/or Mone't Inc. 1. Do NOT let the Inc. 5000 thing fool you. Inc Magazine does NOT require profit/loss statements verified by an auditor, nor do they require any sort of corporate tax income statements proving that they make the money that they claim they make. Denita Scott, their CFO... and Mr. Wiltz' wife... provides "cooked books" to state that Mone't is worth the amount of money they claim, yet they aren't worth that much. Do NOT let that status fool you. 2. They were certified with the Illinois and Tennessee Chamber of Commerce for their first year of business. They haven't paid their dues since then, so they are no longer certified. 3. They have a "non disclosure/non circumvention" agreement for the express purpose that you aren't allowed to look up one of the firms they deal with and find out for yourself that you didn't need to go through Mone't at all. 4. Mr. Wiltz stresses that he hates "daisy chain brokers," when given the information that's readily available via the internet, he does just that: Daisy chain brokerage. 5. Again, Denita Scott is Paul Wiltz' wife. Google "Denita Scott Wiltz." Proof positive. I guarantee you can find a marriage certificate in the state of Illinois for them. This is why Denita Scott hasn't left the company, because she's married to the guy. She goes by Denita Scott solely to throw you off their scent. 6. Your "retainer fees" are going to keep Wiltz and Scott fed and housed. They're going for personal expenses. The original fees were $25K. When that got to be too much and too ridiculous, it went down to $10K, then to $5K and now to $2,500. 7. They lost their office in Memphis. They now work out of an apartment in Chicago. 8. On top of numerous film deals that they've never closed, they've also never closed a commercial deal. Don't be fooled. We have this on very good authority. At the end of the day, I hope I've given you enough information to not do business with this man. One of my producers has told me, flat out, that if anyone wants to charge you to "vet" your projct, it's most likely a scam.

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