HELENA — Matthew McClintock arrived in full Western garb stretched over his 6-foot, 5 inch frame to pitch a potential investor on a documentary about early Montana cowboys. He said he was talking to Clint Eastwood about narrating the film’s opening, he mentioned his friendship with former first lady Barbara Bush and the two men bonded over serving in the Vietnam war.
Missoula businessman Jim Rather said he promised $2,500 — and gave McClintock $1,500 up front — in exchange for product placement and the production of a separate promotional video that Rather could use on his website.
“After having all this happen, I realized he would not look me straight in the eye,” Rather said. “That should have been the first thing that tipped me off.”
Montana officials are investigating McClintock for soliciting investments for a fake film project. A Helena judge has ordered him to stop raising money for the project until a hearing is held in August on whether to issue a permanent injunction against McClintock’s fundraising.
McClintock, who said Tuesday that his name is Albert Michael Willis, told The Associated Press that the film project is real, but some of the things he has told investors are not. He never spoke to Clint Eastwood.
“I actually believed that I did — it’s something I don’t understand,” McClintock said. “I knew I had a problem. The VA will help me understand why I made those statements.”
McClintock said he suffered a cognitive impairment as a reaction to a high-stress situation that caused him to tell people that he spoke to Eastwood and to tell others that two people had died when they hadn’t. He said he is seeking treatment at the Veterans Administration hospital at Fort Harrison.
Rather and Kelly Bigelow of Brand Edge Marketing Group, who brought Rather to McClintock, said it’s a con.
“There’s going to be no movie,” Bigelow said. “It’s all just a fraud for money.”
Bigelow said McClintock’s demands and erratic behavior aroused his suspicion. Then McClintock fired him. Bigelow searched the Internet and then learned McClintock’s past, and he and Rather went to authorities.
McClintock is on probation after pleading guilty in 2010 in a money-raising scam in Madison County to build a ranch for underprivileged children and produce television spots for children’s literacy. He has convictions in Oklahoma in 1991 for obtaining money by false pretense and in 2001 for obtaining services by fraud.
It’s unclear how much money McClintock has raised outside of the $3,500 in pledges Bigelow said he helped secure. McClintock’s old website boasted other sponsors, and he made pitches at hospitals by saying royalties would help the Western Montana Breast Cancer Fund.
Officials with Securities and Insurance Commissioner Monica Lindeen, who filed the petition to block McClintock from soliciting investors, have found several problems.
First, there is no Western Montana Breast Cancer Fund. He also told investors the film would air on Montana PBS, but it said there was no arrangement. The historian McClintock claimed was working on the film denied involvement, and McClintock’s Bar M Films is not registered with the state, investigators said.
Securities officials list eight aliases that McClintock has used.
McClintock appeared without a lawyer Tuesday before Menahan for a hearing on whether to make permanent the injunction blocking him from soliciting investments. Menahan said the injunction would remain in place until the rescheduled hearing on Aug. 24.
McClintock said he planned to have the film ready by Nov. 20, but he told the AP that he is worried health issues won’t allow him to edit it. He ended the interview by bursting into tears, raising his voice and saying, “I killed a 3-year-old girl in Vietnam and I’m coming undone, OK?”
Rather said he feels foolish for giving money to McClintock but wants to help make sure that others don’t.
“It’s a damn shame that I gave it to a crook,” he said.