LOS ANGELES — A Huntington Beach man and part-time actor was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in federal prison for defrauding investors by promoting fake COVID-19 cures and treatments during the early stages of the pandemic.
Keith Lawrence Middlebrook, 57, was sentenced to 98 months in prison by United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who also imposed a $25,000 fine and ordered his immediate remand into custody. Middlebrook was convicted in May 2024 on 11 counts of wire fraud after a three-day jury trial.
Middlebrook is known for his roles as “Tony’s Friend” in The Sopranos, Coach Parker in Moneyball, and a cop in Iron Man 2. He’s also had roles in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Bad Teacher, Thor, The Lincoln Lawyer, Justified, Battlefield: Los Angeles, Castle, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Prosecutors said Middlebrook marketed his supposed COVID-19 cure, dubbed “QC20,” and a treatment he called “QP20,” through text messages, YouTube, and Instagram. He falsely claimed to have developed a “patent-pending” cure and sought investments in his shell companies by making promises of “enormous returns” and fraudulent assertions, including that former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin “Magic” Johnson was involved in his business ventures.
Middlebrook further misled potential investors with claims that a Dubai-based buyer had offered $10 billion for his companies and that several individuals had already invested up to $1 million each. In reality, Middlebrook had no scientific backing for his products, which he once delivered to an undercover FBI agent posing as an investor during a sting operation in March 2020.
Judge Fischer cited Middlebrook’s obstruction of justice, including lying on the witness stand about his alleged ties to Johnson, as a factor in determining the length of the sentence.
