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# Former SM businessman faces hundreds of years in prison
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/former-sm-businessman-faces-hundreds-of-years-in-prison/
- Published: 2006-06-21T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T18:26:44.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Crime, Downtown, #archive-import

*Former SM businessman faces hundreds of years in prison*

DOWNTOWN LA — A federal jury here has convicted two former executives of a Santa Monica advertising placement agency on various fraud and money laundering charges for stealing tens of millions of dollars from corporate clients such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Universal Studios, who paid their firm to place ads with broadcast media, including ABC, NBC and Warner Brothers.

Thomas Edward Rubin, the chairman and CEO of Focus Media, Inc., a now defunct media placement agency once located in Santa Monica, was found guilty Monday afternoon of 25 felony counts, including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud and money laundering. Rubin, a 58-year-old Malibu resident, faces several hundred years in federal prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 23, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.

The same jury that convicted Rubin also determined that Focus Media’s chief financial officer, Thomas Patrick Sullivan, was guilty of 27 counts that virtually overlapped those against Rubin. Sullivan, a 64-year-old Westlake Village resident, also faces a lengthy prison term when he is sentenced on Oct. 23 by United States District Judge Gary A. Feess.

The third defendant in the case, attorney Geoffrey C. Mousseau, was found guilty of conspiracy, two counts of concealing a total of $500,000 in assets in a bankruptcy proceeding, one count of aiding and abetting the making of a false declaration in a bankruptcy proceeding, one count of perjury in a deposition in a bankruptcy proceeding, and one count of willfully withholding books and records in a bankruptcy proceeding. Mousseau, a 45-year-old resident of Glendale, also is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Feess on Oct. 23.

Focus Media’s principal business was buying advertising time on television and radio stations for clients, including Sears and Universal, which by the second half of 1999 were the firm’s two largest remaining clients. For more than a decade, Focus Media was a successful firm, but its fortunes changed in 1999, when it started losing most of its client base. Complicating the matter was that Rubin had taken $16 million out of the company in the form of shareholder loans between 1996 and 1999.

During an approximately one-year period that started in November 1999, Rubin and Sullivan conspired to defraud Focus’ Media’s remaining corporate clients, Sears and Universal, as well as the media outlets from which it ordered advertising, by simply taking the money remitted by its advertising clients to pay the media outlets and using it for their own private purposes, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.

Rubin and Sullivan collected funds to pay for advertising for the last quarter of 1999, misappropriated that money and never paid the media outlets who ran the ads. Even after Sears and Universal obtained court orders prohibiting Rubin and Sullivan from misappropriating their funds, the defendants continued to do so, paying themselves, their lawyers and Focus Media employees, authorities said.

During the course of the year-long scheme, Focus Media collected in excess of $45 million from clients, with no more than $10 million being paid to media outlets. A large portion of the missing funds — approximately $12 million — was used to pay Rubin’s tax liability after Focus Media forgave the millions of dollars in loans he had received over the preceding four years, authorities said.

On Oct. 6, 2000, Focus Media was forced into bankruptcy by three of the unpaid media outlets, including ABC and NBC, which were hoping to preserve whatever assets were left in the firm. A bankruptcy court judge soon after appointed an interim trustee to manage Focus Media’s finances and preserve its assets, but Mousseau joined a conspiracy with Rubin and Sullivan to pay Mousseau, and other law firms, with Focus Media funds without the knowledge of the trustee, according to the United States Attorney’s Office. As part of the scheme, Mousseau funneled approximately $500,000 into his attorney-client trust fund to pay his legal fees and to fund payments to other lawyers, authorities said.

Sears and Focus Media feuded in civil court at about the same time of the bankruptcy over the payment of media bills. Sears had fired the agency and filed suit alleging breach of contract and constructive fraud, claiming that Focus Media was holding onto as much as $50 million Sears had given it to purchase media.

Rubin’s attorney, David Lafaille, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Rubin established Focus Media 30 years ago as one of the nation’s first media buying services with the goal to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the buying function. Prior to establishing Focus Media, Rubin was owner of a marketing company and was a television sales executive at RKO’s television in Los Angeles, where he identified the demand for a company specializing in media buying. He also sat on the board of directors of the Global Security Institute, an international organization focused on nuclear arms control, non-proflieration and disarmament.

Rubin and Sullivan were arrested on June 2, 2005\. Both pleaded not guilty. Rubin had been released on a $2 million bond and Sullivan had been released on a $250,000 bond.

Rubin is due back in court at 9:30 a.m. today for a hearing to determine whether he should be detained as a result of Monday’s convictions.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 21, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062106.pdf?ref=smdp.com)