Harmony Gold USA

In 1976, Frank Agrama began selling broadcast rights from Paramount Pictures to his friend, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset media company. In the late 1970s, Agrama, while in a trade fair in Cannes, France, met Hong Kong entrepreneurs Paddy Chan Mei-yiu and Katherine Hsu May-chun. The three agreed to form a collaboration to trade movie rights internationally. Chan set up Hong Kong-based company Harmony Gold Limited in 1979, while Agrama set up Agrama Film Enterprises on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.[4] In 1983, Agrama founded Harmony Gold USA. He later also became the Los Angeles commercial representative of another of Chan's companies, Wiltshire Trading.[4]

In late 1983, Agrama negotiated a deal with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to distribute the controversial Shaka Zulu miniseries[5] in spite of the economic sanctions at the time.[6] The planned 10-episode miniseries was based on the story of the king of the Zulu, Shaka (reigned 1816 to 1828), and the writings of the British traders with whom he interacted.

Throughout 1984 and 1985, the original budget of about $1.75 million escalated quickly to $12 million, and the SABC justified the outlay to anticipated returns to be earned on the international market. Frank Agrama, however, noted the production was a "calculated gamble." Shaka Zulu had in fact, become the most expensive miniseries ever produced for television syndicate in the United States without pre-commitment to network or operation time to date. To ensure its marketability, Harmony Gold demanded that the well known white 'stars' appeared in the first episode to satisfy US advertisers, contrary to original script.[7] The SABC's involvement was also completely removed for its international release due to legal implications set by apartheid. The opening credits featured Harmony Gold, with Frank Agrama listed as associate producer.

Shaka Zulu went on to become a massive success worldwide, and has developed a cult following since its premiere in 1986. It has been the most repeatedly screened miniseries ever shown on syndicated television in the United States. By 1992, it had been seen by over 350 million viewers. The series dislodged John Marshall's The Hunters and the later The Gods Must be Crazy film series as the prime shaper of American perceptions of 'tribal' history in Southern Africa.[8] Despite its success, the SABC failed to recoup the cost of their production due to unfair terms negotiated by Harmony Gold during production.[9]

In the mid-1980s, Harmony Gold hired Carl Macek to adapt Japanese animated programming for American broadcast release. Macek originally wanted to adapt The Super Dimension Fortress Macross only, but was instead forced to combine it with two other anime series together, even though they had no relation to Macross. These three series became Robotech. The other two series used are:

1. Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross
2. Genesis Climber MOSPEADA[10]

Harmony Gold's cited reasoning for combining these unrelated series was its decision to market Macross for American weekday syndication television, which required a minimum of 65 episodes at the time (thirteen weeks at five episodes per week). Macross and the two other series each had fewer episodes than required, since they originally aired in Japan as weekly series. The production was successful enough to merit an American produced movie and a spin-off, Robotech II: The Sentinels. Due to unforeseen economic circumstances, production was cancelled.

In 1987, Harmony Gold USA inked a deal to distribute international feature films for syndication, which was dubbed by Harmony Gold themselves, and the skein comprises itself of the 25 90-minute films in the Serie Norie collection of films that were produced by Hamster Films of Paris, and Harmony Gold had to take the Serie Norie films to the U.S. and other English-language markets for the viewing area.[11] That year, Harmony Gold USA collaborated with international backers, including Société Française de Productions and Reteeurope, both of the respective French, Italian and Spanish interests to set up a new project, and what the worldwide market represented to set up the Harmony Premiere Network, which was to be the next Operation Prime Time, and brings together U.S. and international financers to co-produce the products for Harmony Gold.[12]

In 1987, the company had teamed up with Italian company Silvio Berlusconi Communications to pay $150 million for a pact, to turn out 100 hours of television programming, and partnering will be dubbed by America 5 Enterprises, which will produce miniseries, TV series and telefilms using U.S. and international talent, and the two companies will share equally in costs and profits, and the company would handle worldwide and domestic television rights, with the exception of Europe, where distribution of the company will be handled through Berlusconi arm Reteitalia.[13]

In 1988, after the cancellation of Robotech II: The Sentinels, a number of the staff were recruited to work at Saban Entertainment. Carl Macek, along with his friend Jerry Beck went on to found Streamline Pictures. Meanwhile, Harmony Gold began moving away from production and began focusing more on film distribution, dot-com ventures and real estate.

In 1998, Harmony Gold came under some scrutiny by several media executives for their role as a 'middleman' selling Paramount Pictures distribution rights to Mediaset.

From 1999 to the early 2000s, the company began reverting to film production once again. They partnered with Netter Digital and hired Carl Macek to write Robotech 3000, which would have been an American produced spinoff of the original series. A promotional trailer was screened at the 2000 FanimeCon anime convention, and was widely panned by fans. Tatsunoko Productions attempted to salvage the project, to no avail.

In 2000, the company produced Abe & Bruno, a family film about a gorilla on the run directed by Henri Charr.[14]

Harmony Gold began heavily pushing Robotech, first by releasing the series via a partnership with ADV Films in the US,[15] and Manga Entertainment in the UK. In 2006, they partnered with FUNimation Entertainment to release the American produced Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles on home video.[16]

In August 2014, Harmony Gold released their first direct-to-video live-action feature in over a decade, The Big Goofy Secret of Hidden Pines. Directed by Henri Charr, the film revolves around the comedic antics of two vacationers after they stumble upon Bigfoot.

On November 29, 2006, federal agents raided Agrama's home and offices in connection with Italy's ongoing tax fraud, embezzlement and false accounting investigation of its former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Court documents revealed the recent search by FBI agents centered on Italian allegations that Agrama, Berlusconi and others fraudulently inflated the price of television rights originally purchased by Agrama so that millions of dollars in kickbacks could be paid to executives of Berlusconi's Mediaset media empire.[17]

On October 26, 2012, Agrama was convicted after a lengthy trial involving the buying and selling of US film rights to the Mediaset media company at inflated prices.[18] As his age exceeded 70 years, he was exempted from direct imprisonment and served no actual jail time. According to the Los Angeles Times, on November 21, 2006, prosecutors in Milan, Italy, charged Agrama, along with Berlusconi and ten others, in a trial over tax fraud, embezzlement and false accounting at Mediaset.

In October 2011, Paddy Chan Mei-yiu and Katherine Hsu May-chun, along with nine others (including Frank Agrama and Pier Silvio Berlusconi, son of Silvio Berlusconi), were indicted by a Milan court and charged with buying rights for US television series and movies, then reselling them to broadcasting rights firm Mediatrade (a subsidiary of Mediaset) at inflated prices and laundering the money in a complex scheme. The four companies allegedly involved in this scheme were Wiltshire Trading, Harmony Gold, CS Secretaries and Loong Po Management.[19]

According to prosecutors, Chan met Agrama in Cannes, France, in the late 1970s at a trade fair and they decided to form a partnership to trade movie rights internationally. Chan organized a Hong Kong-based Harmony Gold Limited in 1979, records from the city's Companies Registry show. In the same year, Agrama organized Agrama Film Enterprises on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Four years later, he set up Harmony Gold. He later also became the Los Angeles representative of another Hong Kong company established by Chan, Wiltshire Trading.

Prosecutors estimated the illicit profits between 1988 and 1999 amounted to US$170 million. Earlier in 2005, Swiss investigators froze 150 million francs (HK$1.29 billion) at a UBS branch in Lugano belonging to Harmony Gold, Wiltshire Trading and other companies.[4]

On July 24, 2014, Variety reported that some of the charges have been dropped due to expiring statute of limitations.[20] An appeals hearing was set to take place January 20, 2016.[21] On January 18, 2016, all charges against Frank Agrama and five other people were dropped. Berlusconi and Mediaset Chairman Fedele Confalonieri were convicted and were sentenced to 13 months of imprisonment.[22]

• Abe & Bruno (2005)
• American Strays (1996)
• Ball & Chain (2003)
• The Big Goofy Secret of Hidden Pines (2014)
• Crazy Jones (2001)
• Dawn of the Mummy (1981)
• Death to the Supermodels (2004)
• Dirt (2001)
• Faster (2003)
• Going Down (2003)
• The Lost World (1992)
• Return to the Lost World (1993)
• Queen Kong (1976)
• Siblings (2004)
• Welcome to the Neighborhood (2002)

• Around the World in 80 Days (1989)
• Heidi (1993)
• King of the Olympics (1988)
• The Man Who Lived at the Ritz (1988)
• Shaka Zulu (1986)
• Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1990)
• Incident at Victoria Falls (1991)

• Robotech (1984; an amalgamation of three different anime series from Tatsunoko Productions)
  • The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982)
  • Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (1984)
  • Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (1983)
• Codename: Robotech (1984; an extended pilot of the 1985 series)
• Robotech: The Movie (1986)
• Robotech II: The Sentinels (1988)
• Robotech 3000 (2000)
• Robotech: Remastered (2003–2004; remastered and extended version of the 1985 series)
• Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006)

• The Age of Dinosaurs (1983)
• The Brave Frog (1985)
• Captain Future (1987)
• Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years (1985; an amalgamation of two different anime series from Toei Animation)
  • Captain Harlock (1978–1982)
  • Queen Millennia (1981–1982)
• Casshan: Robot Hunter (1994)
• Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned (1983)
• Dragon Ball (1989; under license by Toei USA, the first five episodes and a TV special edited from movies 1 and 3)
• Dr. Slump (1984?; the first episode)
• Ferdy the Ant (1984–1985)
• Flower Angel (1986)
• Frankenstein (1983)
• Gatchaman (1994)
• Goldwing (1980)
• Lensman: Power of the Lens (1987)
• Lensman: Secret of the Lens (1988)
• Little Women's Christmas Story (1986)
• Lococomotion (aka Tangoo & Ullashong by KBS/Seoul Movie Company; 2001)[36]
• Magical Princess Gigi (1986; aka Gigi and the Fountain of Youth)
• Once Upon a Time (a.k.a. Windaria; 1986)
• Seven Seas: The Legend of Blue (200?)
• Thumbelina (Sekai Meisaku Douwa: Oyayubi Hime; the 1978 Toei Animation feature film, not the 1992 Enoki Films TV series)
• The World of the Talisman (aka Planetbusters and Birth; 1987)
• The Call of the Wild (Toei Animation, dubbed 1982 Japanese production)
• Timefighters in the Land of Fantasy (1987)
• The Little Train/El Pequeno Tren (Harmony Gold USA dubs English and Spanish 1985; original Italian version 1980)

• Animals of Africa (1987)
• Faster (2003)
• The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper (1988)
• Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (2004)
• Walking After Midnight (1999)

• Cobra (1993–1994)
• The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954, remastered 1999)