A Canadian Hollywood financier, accused of misappropriating $44.5-million, is now dead – and investors are stuck

By Alexandra Posadzki

In early May, 2022, Andrew Chang-Sang travelled to the Cayman Islands to meet with his business partner, Hollywood film financier William Santor.

The purpose of the trip was to discuss Mr. Santor’s new streaming venture, but Mr. Chang-Sang also had some questions for Mr. Santor about their Ontario company, Productivity Media Inc.

The company, which provided debt financing for film and television productions, was in the midst of a financial audit and a due diligence process with a prospective lender. PMI’s lawyer had spotted a couple of things that didn’t make sense to him, according to the version of events Mr. Chang-Sang later outlined in an affidavit filed in an Ontario court.

For one thing, a 2021 audit confirmation letter from Concourse Media, one of the sales agents PMI dealt with, had been signed by James Andrew Felts, who had sold his interest in Concourse two years earlier. And the e-mail address for Mr. Felts didn’t match the one he’d previously used.

Mr. Chang-Sang raised those issues with Mr. Santor, who explained that the split between Mr. Felts and his Concourse co-founder, Matthew Shreder, was still being finalized. The e-mail address, meanwhile, was associated with Concourse’s new distribution arm, he said.

Mr. Santor’s explanations seemed plausible to Mr. Chang-Sang. He hadn’t heard anything about Concourse launching a new distribution business, but it was the logical next step in the company’s evolution. And Mr. Santor spoke so confidently and without hesitation, Mr. Chang-Sang later wrote.

More than two years later, Mr. Chang-Sang sees those events “in a very different light.”

Published by the Globe and Mail.