Frank Agrama

Farouk Frank Agrama January 1 1930 April 25 2023 was an Egyptianborn American film director and producer writer and businessman He was the founder and chief executive officer CEO of Harmony Gold USA Inc In the 1970s and early 1980s Agrama made a number of lowbudget films which included The Godfathers Friend Queen Kong and Dawn of the Mummy He also began selling broadcast rights from Paramount Pictures which he then sold to his friend former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to the latters Mediaset broadcasting and multimedia company In 1983 he secured a deal with the South African Broadcasting Corporation SABC to distribute the controversial miniseries Shaka Zulu3 In the same year he founded Harmony Gold USA Inc Despite Shaka Zulus massive success worldwide Agramas skillful negotiations left SABC to actually lose money while Harmony Gold kept most of the profit Harmony Gold would eventually be known for producing films such as Robotech The Shadow Chronicles other Robotech animated works and the 1993 miniseries Heidi According to the Los Angeles Times prosecutors of Milan on November 21 2006 charged Agrama along with former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and ten others in a trial over tax fraud embezzlement and false accounting to Mediaset In fact on October 26 2012 Agrama was convicted after this lengthy trial where Berlusconi or his group had allegedly bought USA film rights by him to the Mediaset media company at inflated prices As his age was over 70 years he was exempted from direct imprisonment and served no actual jail time In 2013 Agrama and several others including Mediaset Vice President Pier Silvio Berlusconi son of Silvio and the Hong Kongbased Wiltshire Group of Companies were under trial for tax evasion and embezzlement with the broadcasting rights firm Mediatrade In 2014 all parties were acquitted in the first instance due to expiring statute of limitations A new appeals hearing took place on January 20 2016 All charges against Agrama and five others were dropped while Mediaset CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi and President Fedele Confalonieri were sentenced to 14 months imprisonment Agrama died on April 25 2023 at the age of 93