Hollywood studio foots US$1m restitution bill owed by 'Barefoot Bandit', subject of upcoming movie

A Hollywood studio has paid more than US$1 million to the US federal government to cover the restitution owed by Colton Harris-Moore, the fabled “Barefoot Bandit” whose life on the run from the law is headed for the big screen.

The studio, 20th Century Fox, wrote a cheque for US$900,000 to the US Marshal’s office earlier this month, the final payment of court-ordered restitution, mostly to pay for three small airplanes the then-teenaged Harris-Moore stole and crash landed, and a boat he hijacked in the Bahamas while evading capture.

That money is added to US$135,558 paid to the court by the studio in 2012 and completes the restitution Harris-Moore owes. The money is in exchange for his agreement to “forfeit the intellectual property rights” for his story, according to court documents.

A book and a documentary of his exploits already have been published.

Harris-Moore was sentenced to six years in federal prison in 2012 for the theft of the airplanes, a boat and guns during an audacious crime spree that began when he escaped from a Renton juvenile halfway house in 2008 while serving a sentence for a burglary on Camano Island.