Part-time actor gets prison time for bogus COVID cure
By Julie Sharp
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ORANGE COUNTY, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A Huntington Beach part-time actor was sentenced Monday to eight years in federal prison for soliciting investors in companies that marketed fake cures and treatments for COVID-19, prosecutors said.
Keith Lawrence Middlebrook, 57, claimed to have developed a patent-pending cure and a treatment to prevent coronavirus infection, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He called the cure “QC20,” and the treatment “QP20.”
Middlebrook solicited potential investors in California, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Colorado through text messages, videos and statements posted on YouTube and Instagram about this so-called cure for COVID-19.
He said that former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson was a director and officer of his company. He also offered a series of false promises, including miraculous results and risk-free, 100 percent guaranteed “enormous returns” on investments,” prosecutors said.
The U.S. district judge based Middlebrook’s sentence in part on finding that he obstructed justice by lying on the witness stand when he testified about his purported relationship and business dealings with Johnson.
He also told investors that a party in Dubai had offered to purchase his companies for $10 billion, and this offer would secure the victim-investors’ investments in the companies. He also lied that he had secured funding from seven investors who had each already invested between $750,000 and $1 million, prosecutors said.
Middlebrook was arrested in March 2020 after he delivered pills that claimed to prevent the coronavirus infection, to an undercover FBI agent posing as an investor.
At the conclusion of a three-day trial in May 2024, a jury found Middlebrook guilty of 11 counts of wire fraud.
According to Middlebrook’s IMDb page, he appeared in 33 major movies and TV shows, with his first role in “Iron Man 2.” The bio also says that the HBO TV show “Ballers” was based on Middlebrook’s career and real life.
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