"Girls Gone Wild" founder indicted in tax case
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The multimillionaire founder of the racy "Girls Gone Wild" video series was indicted on tax evasion charges on Wednesday -- a day after being arrested and jailed in Florida for contempt of court.
Joe Francis, 34, was indicted by a grand jury in Reno, Nevada, on charges of deducting more than $20 million in false business expenses on the 2002 and 2003 corporate income tax returns of his California-based Mantra Films Inc. and Nevada-based Sands Media Inc.
Francis, who has built a $100 million business from selling videos of young women exposing their breasts, faces up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted, the Department of Justice said.
The indictment was returned a day after Francis was taken into custody in Panama City, Florida, for contempt of court over an outburst during negotiations on a civil lawsuit brought by seven women who said they were underage when they were filmed by his company in 2003.
Francis' arrest and his indictment on tax evasion charges were the latest legal moves against the man whose videos depict drunken young women getting naked and sometimes performing sex acts on each other during spring break parties.
In January, Francis was fined $500,000 in Los Angeles and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service for including footage of two 17-year-old girls engaging in explicit sex acts in a 2002 video.
Mantra produces about 80 "Girls Gone Wild" DVDs a year and is expanding to the United Kingdom, Australia and France. Francis last month announced he was planning a restaurant chain and a line of swimwear and casual wear under the name.
Reuters/Nielsen
