Garth Drabinsky
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Garth Howard Drabinsky, OC , LL.B , LL.D (born October 27, 1949) is a Canadian film and theatrical producer and entrepreneur.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Drabinsky graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1973. He was the producer for a number of films, including The Disappearance (1977), The Silent Partner (1978), The Changeling (1980), Tribute (1980), The Amateur (1981), Losin' It (1983), The Gospel of John (2003), Half Light, and The Gospel of Mark. In 1979, he and Nat Taylor co-founded Cineplex Odeon, a predecessor company of Cineplex Entertainment. In 1995, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
He also helmed the publicly traded theatre production company, Live Entertainment Corporation of Canada, Inc., also known as Livent. Livent made a splash in New York City after purchasing a number of disused Broadway Theatres and remodelling them into what was originally called the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (later renamed the Hilton Theatre). Drabinsky and Livent produced the inaugural production at the theatre, the 1998 musical version of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, which had a long run but was not financially successful.
In November, 1998, Mr. Drabinsky sought bankruptcy protection in the US claiming a debt of $334 million, and securities regulators in both Canada and the US began investigating Livent's books. In January, 1999, Mr. Drabinsky, and his partner, Myron Gottlieb, were indicted in New York, New York on charges of accounting fraud. Drabinsky and Gottlieb failed to appear for trial and are now under fugitive arrest warrants in the United States. Furthermore, in October 2002, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police charged Mr. Drabinsky and three other former Livent senior executives with fraud affecting the public market. These charges were laid under Section 380 (1)(a) of the Criminal Code of Canada; police allege that the accused defrauded creditors and private and public investors of approximately one-half a billion dollars between December 14, 1989, and June 23, 1998, allegedly by falsifying the corporate financial statements of Livent Inc. and therefore misrepresenting the financial health of the company.
