"Home Improvement" Kid Accused of Scamming Investors

Zachery Ty Bryan, best known as eldest son Brad Taylor on TV's Home Improvement, has led a whirlwind life, and has recently been accused of running an investment scam. A new article in the Hollywood Reporter, in which Bryan was interviewed, details his career highs (his TV success, his work as a producer of indie films like A Kindergarten Teacher, his making money with crypto) and his very low lows (he faced charges of felony strangulation and new accusations of not returning investors' money). One investor called his experience a "gut punch." Read on for the details and what Zachery Ty Bryan told the Reporter about what happened.

• Zachery Ty Bryan has a history of DUI arrests, with charges in 2004, 2007, and 2017.
• In October 2020, he was arrested in Oregon and faced multiple charges, including felony strangulation, harassment, fourth-degree assault, coercion, menacing, and interference with making a police report, during an altercation with Johnnie Faye Cartwright, a woman who, at the time, was not his wife.
• The most serious charges, including the felony strangulation, were eventually dropped.
• "Separately, four sources allege that Bryan stole their money through a fraudulent scheme tied to an agriculture-technology startup in individual amounts ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, and totaling close to $50,000. They believe he did so by offering fake contracts that have no value outside of the paper they are printed on," says the Reporter.

Tyler allegedly sold tokens to Producers Market, an ag-tech startup that was token-based—until it decided to not use tokens, meaning Tyler allegedly left his investors high and dry. In one video unearthed by the Reporter, Tyler crows about the company: "It's going be a steady upward path, which is why I took the majority of my Bitcoin and rolled it into this technology…I've accomplished a lot in my life, but I've never actually been a part of something that not only am I going to hopefully do very well off for my family but I'm doing well for the world."

"This was not me running some shady scam deal or something — that's just not me," he told the Reporter, blaming the shifting business model instead. "I'm in the same boat," he added. "What people don't understand is that you take risks. Nothing is for sure. It's the same with movie investments and everything else, you lose or you win." 

As for the Oregon incident: "We didn't even really get that physical. We got really loud. We were screaming and because we were in a townhome that had [thin walls], everybody could hear. Johnnie was, at the time, just really upset about my situation. At the end of the day, [the police] throw a bunch of counts at you because they ultimately want you to plead to something," he told the Reporter. He and Cartwright remain together and recently had twins.

"The guy has two sides," fellow actor Travis Aaron Wade told the Reporter. "His dark is dark, but his light is really light. It's sad because you really do fall in love with him. He's a great guy. But I see it as my responsibility to not let other people get taken advantage of."

"I've always been fortunate with my trust fund from Home Improvement, but this definitely moved things into a different [area] for me," he said. "But then, of course, I'm the guy who is always like, 'Let's go, let's take it out and reinvest.' "

"We were told he had made a [lot] of money in crypto, and when we had a call with him, he presented himself as such a wealthy guy. He said he only worked part-time because he was a family guy who loved his wife and young kids and was a really hands-on father," an insider told the Hollywood Reporter. "Like he was this great man with strong Christian values."

"It was actually really difficult," he says. "If you star in a TV show today, you can be in any film that you want, but back then, it was the polar opposite. You were stigmatized as a TV star, and no matter how good your audition, you were never going to be taken seriously. But I kept at it. On the same token, you might get turned down on a bunch of projects, but you could go out at night and hang out with your buddies at Mel's Diner and everybody knows you."

"I don't know what's going on with him," Allen said last year. "Zach is a great kid who has grown into a complex man. All you can do is step aside and let somebody go through their process. At a certain point, he deviated from the guy I know to somebody who is reacting to situations that I had nothing to do with and can't control….I don't know what happens when people get corrupted. You just don't know."

Tyler was feeling reflective during the interview. "I do know when things get in the way of who you're meant to be, where you're supposed to go and what God has planned for you," he explains. "He sometimes challenges you to do some reflecting by looking in the mirror and taking responsibility."