'Girls Gone Wild' producer sentenced
 

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" video empire was sentenced to community service Wednesday for his company's guilty plea to federal charges of failing to monitor the ages of the women in its videos.

The company, Mantra Films Inc., also agreed to pay $1.6 million in fines for using drunken 17-year-olds in videos it filmed on Panama City Beach during spring break and failing to properly label its DVDs and videos as required by federal law.

U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak told company founder Joe Francis he added the community service because it did not appear a fine would be a meaningful punishment.

The fine represents less than 3 percent of Mantra films' profits since 2002 and only 12 percent of Mantra's 2005 profits, Smoak said. Francis makes an estimated $40 million a year.

"It does not take a very brave man to go out and corner a girl in the middle of spring break who had four drinks," Smoak told Francis.

Francis, 33, said his policy has always been not to film girls under 18 and that the girls filmed in Panama City lied about their ages.

The judge ordered Francis, his company president, general counsel and chief financial officer to each perform eight hours of community service monthly for the next 30 months. But Smoak said the corporate officers could avoid the obligation, giving Francis the option of "stepping up" and serving 16 hours a month of community service by himself in their place.

Attorney Aaron Dyer, representing Francis and the company, said he did not know if Francis would take on the entire sentence himself.

Smoak ordered Francis to read aloud in court a victim impact statement from one of the 17-year-old girls, who said she was emotionally tormented by her appearance on a "Girls Gone Wild" video and that the video damaged her relationship with her family.

Francis later left court without speaking to reporters.

Smoak ordered the company to issue a press release about its federal offenses and to publish the release in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and The News Herald of Panama City.

Francis also faces a Jan. 22 sentencing hearing in federal court in Los Angeles on similar charges in which he has agreed to pay $500,000 in fines.

According to court papers, Mantra Films, based in Santa Monica, Calif., admitted violating record-keeping and labeling laws while distributing videos during all of 2002 and part of 2003.

Mantra issued 83 titles and sold 4.5 million videos and DVDs in 2002, according to Hoover's Inc., a business data firm in Austin, Texas.

(Rewrites throughout to correct Francis' first name to `Joe' sted `Steve,' UPDATE with statement read in court, order for company press release. )

lol... what's 1.6 million and some community service to this guy. he'll make that back this year. at least i think he will...

very interesting stuff

He should use it as a promo tool.

He got off with a slap on the wrist. Can's stand anyone who exploits those who are under the influence or down on their luck for their own profit.

lol someone got paid off...

nice message they send.. film kids nude , pay a tiny fine..,pickup some garbage for a few hours every month.. retire in a mansion for the rest of your life...

community service! whaaaaaaaaat?

i guess the karma was worse than the legal system in this case as joe francis ( the girls gone wild founder/owner )was tied up and sexually molested with a dildo in his ass on camera a few years ago

I'm confused ... do I have to comply with 2257 or can I film drunk underage girls with no ID? The latter is of course much easier to comply with.

What??? Are you serious?

What, you missed the commercials?

shit! he'll make that back this WEEK!

Yes he did. It was embarrassing for him. It was all on tape and Paris Hilton was the one who pointed a finger to the guy who did it. She found out through gossip she over heard at the bars out clubbing one night. He didn't take the black mail and didn't care if they put the tape out. I wouldn't either. Fuck that, never let anyone black mail you. I would have done the same thing he did. I mean come on, he is a good looking guy worth millions do you actually think that video screwed any chances of him banging hot women and still being a millionaire? NOPE! Now the guy who did it is in jail. LOL I guess Joe got the last laugh. The video was pretty violating though.

No the message is that if you are a dumb bitch you can get drunk, lie about your age, show everybody your tits and later sue someone and make money off it. pathetic. They should kick that girls ass.

I'm surprised he didn't buy the rights to the tape and market it himself. Why not, embarrasing but still who care when yr Joe. His rep is not on the line and it's not a big deal when it's just dildos up your ass,could be worse,like maybe he being f-ed in the ass by a dude or who knows what kind of things someone could have done to a nortorious exploiting millionare.

Funny enough...I just saw a clip of the guy who did it to him getting sentenced to some pretty serious jail time. If someone did that to me and I found out who it was, I would not report it to the Police. I think I would find a more "Casino" way to deal with him.

Damm ...

I agree with this, but he still got off with nothing but a slap on the wrist....People do more community service for stealing a candy bar......:mad:

wow some crazy sheit. hahah.

I dunno how much expoliting is going on.. I'm pretty sure when they film at parties it's pretty well advertised in advance. I know they had a party here last year and it was all over the radio as being a "Girls Gone wild Party".


Of course you can't argue about the use of 17 year olds but in the exploiting in general I'm pretty sure these girls know what kind of party they are going to. :2 cents: :2 cents: