Alleged phony producer changed his name after US fraud conviction

Francisco Griñán

Málaga

Friday, 28 July 2023, 18:01

Following the apparent death of Pat Andrew, otherwise unknown profiles have appeared. The American producer held an Irish passport, so he moved around Spain as an EU citizen.

Between 2002 and 2005, an American businessman set up a publishing house in Dublin. The firm ended up with numerous debts after continual delays and promises of repayment, according to journalist Emily Hourican writing in 2016 in the Irish Independent newspaper.

The man in question, who always dressed in an impeccable suit, disappeared from the country in 2006; his name was Pat Austin. SUR has confirmed with several sources who knew the producer of Marked - The Unforgiven in person that Andrew and Austin are the same person, twenty years apart.

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The fake life of American film producer Pat Andrew on the Costa del Sol

After Ireland, Pat Austin went back to New York, where, in 2011, he was sued for racketeering, fraud, unjust enrichment and swindling by several investors. Cited by the judge, the businessman - who according to the sentence also used the aliases Patrick Augustus and Patrick Augustine - avoided appearing and delayed the hearing. Finally, in 2013, a court ruled that he would be tried in absentia and, the following year, he was sentenced and ordered to pay 6.5 million dollars. To delete the blot on his copybook, Patrick changed his surname to Andrew and obtained a legal Irish passport with this new identity, which he validated in Spain with an NIE.

With his gold watch on his wrist, smart suits and pressed shirts, his calling card to business people in Malaga was the ever-attractive Hollywood pedigree. He called himself “a former executive of famed producer Aaron Spelling” in his press releases. Indeed, the Imdb film database lists a Patrick Andrew, who in 1992 appeared as an accountant for ten episodes of Melrose Place, produced by Spelling. It is not known whether this is the same Pat Andrew who turned up in Malaga or another person with the same name who the alleged producer used as a credential for potential investors and professionals. In any case, working as an accountant would not make him an “executive”.