Playback LA's Founder Dean Earls Announces Departure From Playback LA
An official statement from founder Dean Earls on his separation from Playback LA.
Official Playback LA statement
LOS ANGELES, CA - Playback LA founder Dean Earls has formally separated himself from the company he helped rescue, finance, design and establish in Los Angeles.
Earls' departure follows a period of serious ill health that required him to step away temporarily from the day-to-day operation of the business.
Upon returning, Earls says he began discovering significant irregularities involving the company's finances and administration.
According to Earls, his review showed that Daniel "OT" Marquez had been accepting cash bookings outside normal company accounting channels and diverting money away from the business.
Earls also says his investigation uncovered a considerably more serious issue.
According to Earls, Marquez had fraudulently assumed and used the identities and credit profiles of both Earls and Earls' former wife without their knowledge or authorization.
Earls maintains that documentary records exist supporting his account.
The discovery ended a relationship that had begun years earlier when Marquez, who had originally entered Tucker Bodine's operation as an intern, introduced Earls to producer Austin Sexton and later Bodine.
Earls also came to believe that Marquez had positioned himself between the partners, maintaining Bodine's trust while presenting different versions of events to different people.
For Earls, the departure closed a particularly difficult chapter.
Following the collapse of Playback's previous business, Bodine and Marquez had approached Earls seeking the financial backing required to give the company another chance in Los Angeles.
Earls provided it.
He financed the Los Angeles build, retained his contractor, helped design the facility, donated equipment and materials from his own home studio so Studio B could begin generating revenue, and helped establish housing in Los Angeles for both Marquez and Austin Sexton.
Earls had also helped Sexton move from an unstable situation in Santa Barbara into a position where he could concentrate on developing his career.
The decision to leave Playback LA was therefore not simply the end of a business investment.
It represented the end of a project Earls had personally helped bring back from the dead.