Fraudulent British Film a Far Cry from 'Argo'

Argo tells the remarkable true story of a fictitious movie production that helped secure the freedom of six Americans from Iran. The movie earned Best Picture honors earlier this year and reminded viewers of a dramatic chapter in American history.

A Landscape of Lies is also based on a falsehood, but the roots behind it are far more troublesome. And, as it turns out, illegal.

A U.S. film festival has withdrawn an award given to a British movie about a Gulf War veteran seeking justice after a London court jailed five people for making the movie as part of 2.8 million pound ($4.3 million) tax scam.Tax inspectors were told that A-listers from Hollywood would be starring in a 19.6 million pound production that would be shot in Britain.

But the gang never intended to make the film … “The real intent was to defraud the public purse of nearly 1.5 million pounds in VAT along with nearly 1.3 million in film tax credit claims,” the HMRC revenue department said.

The movie was made, though, with far less famous faces who apparently were unaware of the fraud in progress.