Joe Francis, the in and out of trouble founder of the Girls Gone Wild series, has managed to tick off the Department of Justice yet again. This time, he has been accused of criminal contempt for disclosing court documents related to his income tax troubles. Those documents had been sealed by the court. Specifically at issue is an interview with a government witness that Francis allegedly turned over to a third party.
The prosecution is asking for jail time or a fine as punishment. Francis has previously served time for child abuse, prostitution and prison violations (that’s right, he screwed up while in prison). He managed to avoid additional jail time when he struck a deal with prosecutors in his federal income tax avoidance case; the new contempt charges are related to that case.
Even if he sorts this one out (the man is like a cat with nine lives), Francis still has to settle up with the IRS. The IRS claims that Francis owes tens of millions of dollars and has slapped a civil lien on him for $34 million. It’s a phenomenal amount of money owed for just a few years of unpaid taxes – assuming (and it’s a good assumption) that Francis was in a top marginal rate, it appears that Francis has raked in over a hundred million dollars. Amazing what you can do with a video camera and some drunk, attention-starved girls.
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.