TV producer charged with stock fraud

The Associated Press

Drew Levin, 54, the founder of Team Communications Group, Inc., was indicted by a federal grand jury on 13 counts, including conspiracy, falsifying his company's books and records, making false statements in annual and quarterly reports and lying to the company's auditors, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Levin, who produces mostly made-for-TV programs and documentaries, faces up to 200 years in prison if convicted of all counts. He has not been arrested, and is expected to make his first court appearance Friday, prosecutors said.

There was no telephone listing for Levin's residence in the Pacific Palisades section. An after-hours call to the company, now called TMC Entertainment, was not immediately returned Wednesday.

The company produces and distributes television programs and licensed its programs to other companies for distribution fees. Its shares were publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Prosecutors said Levin orchestrated a scheme to overstate Team Communications' annual and quarterly revenue to make the company appear profitable, when it was actually losing money. As a result, they said, customers ended up paying inflated distribution fees and Levin profited from the scheme.

Levin received a $335,000 bonus based on the company's reportedly profitable 1999 performance, and he pledged more than 500,000 shares as collateral for a loan to buy a $1.5 million ranch in Big Sky, Mont., prosecutors said.

In 2001, Team Communications restated its 1999 fiscal results, going from a $1.7 million profit to a $4.25 million loss, prosecutors said. The following year, the company reported a loss of more than $42 million and later filed for bankruptcy.

Levin's credits include "The Matthew Shepard Story" and "Total Recall 2070."

Mother gives birth to baby using frozen sperm from husband killed by cancer FOUR years ago

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Lisa Roberts and her late husband James decided to have his sperm frozen when he was diagnosed with the cancer which killed him at just 33 years of age.

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Joy: Lisa Roberts proudly hugs Jaimie-Rose, conceived through her dead husband's frozen sperm

And despite doctors telling the widow that the chances of giving birth to his child through IVF treatment were as low as 20 per cent, Jaimie-Rose Roberts was born last week.

Mrs Roberts, said her husband, with whom she already had a son, Cameron, who is now seven, would have approved of her growing family.

The 33-year-old accountant said: "I can't believe that something so lovely can come from something so tragic.

"She's amazing. I hope James is looking down on us with a smile on his face.

"I wish he was here to see her because I know he would be so happy. She's just beautiful."

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Together: Lisa and husband James Roberts

She and James had been married for six years when he was diagnosed with a cancerous leg tumour.

The couple were warned that treatment would leave him infertile so he had his sperm frozen for future use and signed over ownership to his wife.

Mrs Roberts said: "He was really pleased about the medical technology to store his sperm for us to have more babies in the future.

"James always wanted a family - he always wanted children, he loved children.

"We had been trying for three years before Cameron. He was so excited when he was born. He was a great dad and a great husband."

Sadly, Mr Roberts' tumour spread despite the chemotherapy treatment and he died in hospital with his wife by his side in October 2004.

His wife concentrated on bringing up their son Cameron at the family home in Chepstow, Gwent and waited more than two years until she felt strong enough to go through the IVF treatment.

She said: "I suddenly felt it was the right time.

"I used our savings of more than £4,000 to cover the cost because I couldn't think of anything in the world better to spent it on - I know James would have approved." But doctors told her that only one of ten of her embryos was usable - dramatically cutting her chance of getting pregnant.

Lisa said: "They told me not to hold out much hope, saying there was just a 20 per cent of me getting pregnant.

"But it was amazing. It worked straight away - something inside me knew it always would. I had a feeling it would be fine.

"I took 32 pregnancy tests which were all positive before I could believe I was having James's child.

"Cameron came to the scans with me - taking the role James had when I was expecting him. We read all the baby books together."

Little Jaimie-Rose was born a week ago by Caesarian section weighing in a healthy 6lb 15oz and is back at home with mum and brother Cameron, now seven.

She said: "It was Cameron who suggested calling her Jaimie after their daddy.

"He was adamant about it.

"He's been fantastic and so supportive. He is so proud of his little sister - knowing that she is also from his daddy."

Mrs Roberts is not the first woman to become pregnant using frozen sperm after becoming a widow.

In 2004 Diane Scott became pregnant for the first time at the age of 44, after paying £16,500 for IVF treatment using sperm that had been stored a few months before her husband Peter died.

Both Mr Roberts and Mr Scott are believed to have been given permission for their wives to use their sperm, avoiding the legal obstacles encountered by Diane Blood.

Mrs Blood was not allowed to use the sperm of her husband Stephen, who died of meningitis in 1995.

He had been in a coma and so had been unable to give his permission. But she eventually won a legal battle and has since had two sons.

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