A Carefully Crafted Hoax is a feature investigative documentary that examines child prostitution and sexual exploitation in America by focusing on the well-documented story of Johnny Gosch, a paperboy adbucted in Des Moines, Iowa, and its connection to a notorious pedophile network based in Nebraska.

The shocking disclosures begin at an old brick warehouse in a seedy section of Washington, DC, progressing through the $40 million dollar bust-out of a nondescript Midwestern credit union and then back to a DC party-house that was wired for blackmail. A tragic tale that tears at your heart and rips your soul, A Carefully Crafted Hoax proves that child-pandering was covered up from the utmost pinnacle of power - using the CIA, FBI, Secret Service and a corrupt judicial process.

Every 40 seconds a child is abducted or goes missing in the United States. Some have run away, some have strayed from their parents and are temporarily lost, but many others fall through the cracks and become entangled in the webs of predators - only to end up being abused, enslaved, pandered, or worse. An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 American children under 18 years of age are victimized through prostitution every year. The traumatic effect that losing a child has on the families and communities would lead one to believe that protecting our nation's youth would be law enforcement's top priority, but Shared Hope International, a sex trafficking watchdog, has found that most Americans, including far too many government officials, have no idea that children under the age of 18 are being shipped from state to state as child prostitutes. How could this be happening right underneath our noses?

Featuring first hand interviews with several of the players at the center of story, including child victims, their parents, members of the trafficking ring, and law enforcement, A Carefully Crafted Hoax seeks to understand how such behavior can go unchecked. Most importantly, the film seeks to answer the questions the mainstream media has been too negligent - or too afraid - to ask. Are our politicians, top business and media personalities compromised? Is there a covert checks-and-balances system affecting our body politic?

BACKGROUND
Journalist Nick Bryant stumbled on to a U.S. Customs report on the "Finders," a group reportedly responsible for kidnapping children. Seven years and 40,000 miles later and he's written the authoritative history on the cover up of a child trafficking network centered in Omaha in his newly released book The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse & Betrayal.

He located several of the young victims, who are now adults, and persuaded them to talk - some for the first time ever; he tracked down members of the sex-ring, getting them to speak publicly about what happened. Digesting thousands of documents and conducting hundreds of hours of interviews, Bryant has written the definitive narrative of our country's most suppressed scandal. More than just an expose', this is also an amazing chronicle of courage, faith and fortitude amidst great betrayal.

THE STORY
On September 5, 1982 Johnny Gosch was abducted while delivering newspapers during his regular morning route.  His mother Noreen Gosch has spent the past 27 years investigating what happened to her son. Twelve years later on an episode of America's Most Wanted, Paul Bonacci met with Noreen and confessed to helping kidnap Johnny as a teen and told of being used to lure kids into the clutches of a child prostitution network. He also revealed details about Johnny she had never told anyone - leading her to believe Paul was telling the truth. Paul's testimony was relayed to the Des Moines Police Department and the FBI but they called him un-credible.

In 1989, Lawrence "Larry" King, Jr., General Manager of the Franklin Federal Credit Union, was accused of pilfering million dollars from the bank to fund his lavish lifestyle as a political high roller. Shortly thereafter, a special Legislative Committee was convened in Nebraska to investigate King's financial crimes as well as allegations of widespread sexual abuse and rumors of wild parties where kids from Boys Town, the distinguished Catholic orphanage on the outskirts of Omaha, Nebraska, were given cash and drugs to engage in sexual activities with prominent figures under King's control.

Although overwhelming evidence existed for King's national pedophile network, the Committee's efforts to expose it were continuously stymied by Federal and local law enforcement's refusal to cooperate with inquiries, and by threats dispensed to witnesses and victims. The efforts of the Committee were irrevocably derailed when its chief investigator, Gary Caradori, died in a mysterious plane crash, and a grand jury would ultimately conclude that the child abuse allegations were "a carefully crafted hoax." The victims were used, abused, and discarded, and they knew what would happen to them if they ever came clean. In one case, Alisha Owen, a young girl who had been abused since the age of 14 refused to recant her abuse to the FBI, and she was sentenced to prison for 9-15 years on trumped up perjury charges. She spent nearly two years in solitary confinement.

A Carefully Crafted Hoax
By combining original footage, news clips, lost scenes from a suppressed documentary, Conspiracy of Silence, telephone recordings, classified documents, and interviews with the victims who are now adults, A Carefully Crafted Hoax builds on the mountain of existing evidence to present a portrait of Johnny, Paul, Alisha and the rest of the throwaway kids whose lives were fatefully intertwined in the disturbing world of child prostitution.

The film seeks to understand what happened to Johnny and elucidate Alisha's fate, and look at Boys Town's role in the national pandering network. What has become of King's pedophile ring? Who is collecting these kids off our streets and selling them? How can we stop it?

FEATURING:

• Noreen Gosch, Mother of Johnny Gosch
• Lawrence King, Former President of Franklin Credit Union and accused ringleader of a national pedophile network
• Paul Rodriguez, Washington Times, broke stories on powerbroker Craig Spence, King's partner in pandering and blackmail
• John DeCamp, Former Nebraska senator who wrote The Franklin Cover-Up, a book detailing the scandal
• Eulice Washington, First victim of King's to come forward
• Tony Harris, Boys Town student who was flown around the country by King for sexual exploitation
• Henry Vinson, owned the largest escort service in DC history and supplied escorts to Craig Spence and Larry King
• Paul Bonacci, A victim who was awarded a $1 million judgement against King and admitted to abducting Johnny Gosch.
• Fred Carter, Former Boys Town mayor who privy of Boys Town students being used for for sexual exploitation
• Alisha Owen, One of six exploited kids to come forward and testify before the grand jury
• William Colby, Former Director of CIA
• Rusty Nelson, Blackmail photographer hired by King
• Val Peter, President and director of Boys Town
• Rue Fox, Former Boys Town student who was exploited by King
• Troy Bonner, Former victim exploited by King
• Nikolai Cayman, Former Boys Town student exploited by King

PRODUCTION TEAM

Nick Bryant
Nick Bryant's writing has recurrently focused on the plight of disadvantaged children in the United States, and he's been published in numerous national journals, including the Journal of Professional Ethics, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, and Journal of School Health. He is the co-author of America's Children: Triumph of Tragedy, addressing the medical and developmental problems of lower socioeconomic children in America.

RUMUR Inc
RUMUR is an award winning multimedia studio based in Brooklyn. Working in all mediums and using a broad scope of technologies, we offer a comprehensive suite of services, ranging from creative consulting to web development, motion picture production, digital distribution and marketing. Partners David Beilinson, Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky bring a extensive array of skills and a tireless commitment to creating excellent and innovative work, regardless of medium.

RUMUR has closely collaborated with high profile clients in the news, entertainment, consumer products, and non-profit industries, to realize both small and large-scale productions. As the lines between film, television, and the web continue to blend together, RUMUR integrates its productions across multiple platforms starting at the early development stages through final print and distribution.

RUMUR creates feature films, webisodes, music videos, mini-series, industrial commercials, and web applications, including the critically acclaimed Horns and Halos, Occupation Dreamland, Miami Manhunt, Half-Cocked, and Radiation. We also produce media for larger non-profits like the New York Public Library.

Josh Shore
Josh Shore is a filmmaker, television creator/producer and brand strategist. In January of 2000, he started the Guerrilla News Network, a leading online news platform and Sundance award-winning production boutique. Prior to that, he created and produced original television series for USA, Showtime, MTV and Fuse, and others. Most recently, he started an animation studio to produce a 360 degree transmedia IP called Illuminated - with web portal, online game, motion comic, feature film and more. Aside from his work in media, he has served as a strategist for corporations, NGOs and high net worth individuals, helping them develop their brands, appeal to youth markets and build new (r)evolutionary initiatives.

CASE STUDIES
Rumur Inc has a successful track record producing and distributing award-winning, critically acclaimed documentary films that have shown at the top film festivals around the world and on the biggest cable networks.

Occupation Dreamland
Occupation: Dreamland is an unflinchingly candid portrait of a squad of American soldiers deployed in the doomed Iraq city of Falluja during the winter of 2004.

Played in over 25 cities theatrically, released on video through every major retailer, and licensed for television to Sundance Channel, and HBO Latin America among others. Short-listed for Best Documentary for the 2006 Academy Awards.

Sales and Licensing: $450,000

Miami Manhunt
This sweeping chronicle captures the hunt, capture, escape, and trial of the Miami Serial Rapist - one of the most spell-binding cases in American justice.

Licensed to A&E for television and video sales, and foreign networks.

Sales and Licensing: $550,000

Horns and Halos
HORNS AND HALOS captures the unlikely connection of three men - an ex-con turned celebrity biographer, a janitor cum underground publisher, and U.S. President George W. Bush - whose paths to power and popularity become tangled in a controversial book.

Played in over 25 cities theatrically, released on video through every major retailer, and licensed to HBO, Documentary Channel, and foreign networks. Short-listed for Best Documentary for the 2003 Academy Awards.

Sales and Licensing: $450,000

Box Office Totals for High Profile Documentaries

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) - $119,194,771
The Fog of War (2003) - $4,417, 124
Born into Brothels (2004) - $3,515,061
The Corporation (2004) - $3,493,516
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) - $3,119,113
Why We Fight (2006) - $1,439,972
No End in Sight (2007) - $1,433,319

FEATURE FILM INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY

Hoax Film Production LLC owns the universal rights to distribute A Carefully Crafted Hoax. Managing members are offering shares equal to 30% for (US) $99,000 or prorated at $3300 per 1%.

The plan is to show A Carefully Crafted Hoax at major film festivals (Sundance, Toronto, Cannes) and then license and or sell it to a distributor - be it a cable network or motion picture studio.

Select Film Festival Schedule:

• Toronto: September 2010
• New York: September 2010
• Sundance: January 2011
• SXSW: March 2011
• Cannes: May 2011

The sales options might include being acquired and selling all rights in all media in perpetuity for one lump sum or it might include selling individual media rights (television, video, theatrical) in different territories to various outlets a la carte.

We hope for an Advance Sale of $250,000 (our base budget) to $1million (realistic ceiling).

Future Revenue
Future revenue beyond the Advance Sale will come from several sources including, but not limited to:

• U.S. Theatrical
• Foreign Theatrical
• U.S. DVD Sales and Rentals
• Foreign DVD Sales and Rentals
• U.S. Pay/Free Television
• Foreign Pay/Free Television
• Worldwide Video On Demand

Investment Return
The Investors will receive 120% of their investment back out of the first money that comes in from sales exceeding $330,000.
After the Investors receive 120%, all Deferments will be paid.
After the Deferments are paid, every dollar thereafter is split 70/30 between Producers and Investors.

*Deferments: In order to get certain crew and production support to work below typical rates, it is necessary to promise deferred money or profit participation to those parties. All profit participation, if applicable, will come out of the Producer's share.

Investment Proceeds
After 50% of Investors funds are raised ($50,000) the production will deliver a rough cut. After 100% of Investor funds are raised ($100,000) the production will deliver a feature cut primed for film festival distribution.

In the event that an outside sale does not occur prior to the conclusion of the film festival tour RUMUR may without obligation release the film for a short term theatrical run (seven days) to qualify for Academy Award consideration and engage in a DVD and video on demand release via their label deal with Koch Entertainment.

RUMUR films have previously grossed more than $500,000 in video sales.

For more details contact: David Beilinson   I   Nick Bryant