Criminal Charges Filed Against Ex-Head of Iowa Film Office, Filmmakers

From the Des Moines Register:

The Iowa Attorney General’s office on Monday charged the former manager of the Iowa Film Office with misconduct in office and filed first-degree theft charges against principals involved in the making of a 2008 film in Council Bluffs.

The charges are the first after an almost five month probe of mismanagement and abuse of the state’s tax incentive program for filmmaking. The scandal has prompted state officials to review the effectiveness of all Iowa tax credits programs.

Deputy Attorney General Thomas H. Miller said preliminary hearings would be scheduled in the next 20 days for Tom Wheeler, who was fired in September as manager of the Iowa Film Office; Wendy Weiner Runge, an Omaha native and executive producer of “The Scientist;” Matthias Alexander Saunders, another business owner and photography director; and three limited liability corporations tied to the movie.

We’ve been following the travails of Iowa’s film tax credit program, which suffered from a lack of oversight and inflated claims about success common to many other state film incentive programs:

• Film Industry to Iowa: Make Our Corrupt Tax Credit Bigger, by William Ahern, February 4, 2010
• More on Iowa Film Credits and Why Tax Reform is So Difficult, by Mark Robyn, February 4, 2010
• New Podcast: Joe Kristan on Film Tax Credits in Iowa, by Natasha Altamirano, January 20, 2010
• Iowa Governor Appoints Panel to Determine Effectiveness of Tax Credits, by Joseph Henchman, November 25, 2009
• Connecting the Dots in Iowa, by Mark Robyn, October 20, 2009
• Iowa Film Credit Report Reveals More Problems; Criminal Investigation Forthcoming, by Mark Robyn, October 5, 2009
• Iowa Officials May Be Trying to Get Out of Bad Film Tax Credit Deals, by Mark Robyn, September 24, 2009
• Corruption and Abuse in Iowa’s Film Tax Credit Program, by Mark Robyn, September 22, 2009

And, of course, check out our report on the problems of film tax credit programs.