April 12, 2007
A federal grand jury in Reno, Nevada, has returned an indictment charging Girls Gone Wild creator Joseph R. Francis with tax evasion.
The U.S. Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service said the indictment alleges that Francis, whose companies Mantra Films Inc. and Sands Media Inc. produce and sell the Girls Gone Wild videotapes and DVDs, deducted more than $20 million in false business expenses on the companies' 2002 and 2003 corporate income tax returns.
According to the indictment, Francis used offshore bank accounts and entities purportedly owned by others to conceal income he earned during 2002 and 2003.
The indictment also alleges that Francis transferred more than $15 million from an offshore bank account to a brokerage account in Irvine, Calif., held in the name of Rothwell Limited, a Cayman Islands corporation, that Francis controlled.
If convicted, Francis faces up to ten years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.
The child porn producer has been a consistent source of complaints to ConsumerAffairs.com, mostly from consumers who say they were charged for DVDs they never ordered and never received.
