Latest twists in the tale of supposed Hollywood producer Pat Andrew

Pat Andrew supposedly died in April this year, however he is still making the headlines. The so-called producer from the States has been exposed for yet more alleged white collar crimes in Malaga.

As authorities have not been able to confirm his death, criminal investigations have begun into his array of scams. Consequently, many of his victims have started to come forward with their stories exposing his bogus nature.

One of the major scams involved Swiss writer George Van Mellaert, who lost 500,000 euros to the con artist. Also taken in were bikers George Christie and Manuel Villamuela, while another story has also exposed Andrew’s publicity stunts of proposing to buy Malaga football club and Soho Theatre.

It all began in 2019, when Pat Andrew came to the Costa del Sol and promised to make various TV series all based in Malaga, under the auspices of his production company Wanda-Halcyon.

He pretended to know well-known actors such as George Clooney and Scarlett Johansson to legitimise his business, and faked a relationship with industry giant Steven Spielberg. He went on to recruit a cast for each of these TV series and make plans to film, only for the shooting to never happen and the series to mysteriously disappear.

Pat began to lose credibility as he continuously postponed filming and failed to film anything for his shows. His false promises began to catch up with him and suspicions were rising and, on 28 April 2023, an email sent from the filmmaker’s office declared his sudden death. A plot twist seemingly as fake as the producer himself.

For months, SUR has retraced the steps of Pat Andrew in his fraudulent adventure in Spain and the trail of complaints against him.

In August 2020, Swiss writer George Van Mellaert was offered the idea of making a televised adaptation of his novel Corruption of Justice. Sitting in the luxurious Hotel Miramar was of course Pat Andrew, smiling and dressed impeccably as the fake auditions were under way.

By this point, the Swiss writer had already paid the supposed director a total of 404,100 euros in advances and loans. A couple of months later, the sum of money had reached 497,600 euros, as investigated by Swiss authorities. As of today, there is no trace of the series, nor the money, nor the alleged Hollywood director.

“Pat Andrew left me in ruins. He emptied by bank accounts to the last euro,” said George Mellaert, who was victim of the largest known scam allegedly committed by Pat Andrew in Malaga.

To understand how Andrew convinced the writer to transfer his life savings, we have to go back to the end of 2019. George came to Malaga in November that year to visit some relatives and escape some personal struggles at home. There, he met Pat Andrew through biker and former Hells Angel George Christie, who was also taken in by one of Andrew’s fake TV series, although he did not know at the time.

Andrew told the writer he had a contract with Canal Plus to turn a book into a series, and his novel was the perfect match. Andrew said he needed 25,000 euros to hire scriptwriters and that the meeting to finalise the details would be in two or three weeks, so it was “now or never” for the writer, who explained “how he put pressure on me”.

“Once I made the first payment, the manipulation began, which went from 25,000 euros to 500,000 euros. I had put one foot in and I had to keep paying because, if not, my dream would not come true,” he said.

“By the time I discovered that Pat Andrew was actually Pat Austin [convicted of fraud in the US] it was too late,” acknowledged the writer. The last he heard of him was the same as everyone else: the message announcing his death.

Andrew did not only come to Malaga to con people out of their savings; he evidently also came to make a name for himself with ridiculous publicity stunts to make him seem like the epitome of a rich entrepreneur.

He approached the owners of Malaga CF and claimed to represent a consortium of six investors, made up of a major shareholder of a Spanish bank and another millionaire who was part of the City Football Group, owners of Manchester City and Girona. He first approached the club in 2019, telling the minority shareholders that he offered 45 million to Al Thani, Malaga’s owner, but he did not want to sell. He thus had to convince the minority shareholder group, APA, to act as leverage to broker his deal.

After the first meeting with the APA, “Antonio Aguilera [president of the APA] believed him and trusted him, but Jesús Burgos and I thought he was bogus. He did not give us a good impression and we left the meeting very suspicious,” said Francisco Valverde, the lawyer who was there to give legal advice to the shareholders. “We caught on very quickly and did not put him in contact with anyone,” he went on to say.

Evidently, this never materialised, like many of Andrew’s proposals. He even suggested sponsoring the club’s kit, but once again Andrew failed to put his money where his mouth was.

This was not his only attempt to make a name for himself on the Costa del Sol. He tried to align himself with Malaga-born Antonio Banderas, first renting the actor’s Caixabank Soho Theatre for auditions of his so-called series Marked The Unforgiven and lying about Banderas being there himself.

He took things a step further, approaching Banderas about buying his Soho Theatre. “He offered to buy the Soho Theatre, but when I told him that it was a ‘non-profit’ project, he could not believe it because he did not align himself with non-profit activities,” Banderas told SUR. The actor also explained how “nobody knew him in Hollywood when I asked about him”.

Stephanie, a 32-year-old actress fromFlorida, was contacted by Pat Andrew to work for his team as an actress and PA organising castings and other events on the Costa del Sol. She agreed, believing this was the chance to kick-start her career.

While Stephanie did not directly send him any money, she explained how the “trauma” still impacted her financially as she was spending money she expected to make from the series, but which never came. Her life continues to be haunted by the con artist: “When I got out of it, no one wanted to hire me because they didn’t trust me,” she said.

George Christie, known for his days as a Hells Angel biker, also fell for Andrew’s lies. He told SUR about how he was promised a starring role in a series called Marked the Unforgiven, but, as we have come to see, the filming never happened. Christie however clarified that Pat never asked him for money, and even paid for his hotels.

He explained how he “accidentally” discovered Pat’s dual identity: “His PA sent me an email that I had never seen before” using the name Pat Austin, his real name under which he is convicted in the US.

Another biker fell victim to Pat Andrew; this time it was Manuel Villamuela. He, like George Van Mellaert, was introduced to Pat through George Christie. He was told Pat needed someone who could translate into English. He was immediately sold, perhaps a little star struck at the prospect of working with his idol Christie.

Pat asked him to pay 800 euros to cover the fee for the US Actors Union, a requirement which does not exist in Spain, and a recurring scam of his which often fooled his victims.

Local photographer Chema Artero was also taken advantage of; in 2020, he was contacted by Pat’s fake agency Hormiguea about taking photos for a campaign. As usual, he was promised a lot of money for his work which never came, and is still owed 2,000 euros.

American actress Nikol was also approached by Pat to star in Marked the Unforgiven. Luckily for her, her agent was quick to notice things did not add up in the contract, and so she did not sign.

Unlike others, she managed to get out in time and not lose any money, just her time and hope. She was not even surprised when the news broke he was a fraud, saying “he had done something similar before in Ireland. Someone has to make a documentary about him”.