Wynn Las Vegas says 'Girls Gone Wild' boss owes $2 million

[clevfan]

Jul. 01, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Video maker sued by LV hotel

Wynn Las Vegas says 'Girls Gone Wild' boss owes $2 million

By ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLY
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Scratch the NBA, but add "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis to Steve Wynn's short list -- short on funds that is.

Wynn Las Vegas, which sued June 12 seeking payment for an outstanding bill for a fundraiser that took place during last year's All-Star Weekend, has been paid in full by an unnamed party, property spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne said Monday.

But on Friday, the Strip resort sued Francis, saying the 35-year-old owner of the video franchise featuring college students in sexually provocative situations, owes the company $2 million in unpaid gambling debts dating back to February 2007.

Francis, who has not been formally served the court papers, said through a representative Monday that he has no debt with the resort.

"As far as Mr. Francis is concerned, his obligations to the Wynn hotel have been fully lived up to per prior agreements," said Ronn Torossian, a spokesman for Mantra Entertainment, Francis' production company.

A Wynn Las Vegas representative declined to comment on the lawsuit.

News of the lawsuit against Francis comes a day after Wynn Las Vegas said it erroneously named subsidiaries of the National Basketball Association as defendants in its June 12 lawsuit seeking to recover $50,000 for the Alonzo Mourning Charities fundraiser.

Mourning, a former NBA star, is a co-defendant in that lawsuit.

Wynn's attorneys, who were preparing to amend the lawsuit when it received payment for the outstanding bill, will now file a request to dismiss that lawsuit, Dunne said.

"Wynn Las Vegas and the NBA have enjoyed a long-standing, productive business relationship," Dunne said. "Wynn Las Vegas will continue to support the NBA in their endeavors and regrets any inconvenience this error may have caused."

According to the lawsuit, Wynn Las Vegas extended $2.5 million in credit to Francis on Feb. 16, 2007, and an additional $300,000 two days later.

Francis made a $800,000 payment later that month, but the rest has yet to be paid, according to court papers filed in Clark County District Court.

The lawsuit is just the latest legal trouble facing Francis.

Francis is free on $1.5 million bail pending a trial on tax evasion charges in Reno.

Francis was booked into Washoe County Jail in June 2007 on two counts of federal tax evasion. He decided to remain in jail in Nevada rather than be sent back to Florida, where he faced charges of child abuse and prostitution.

He was released in March after pleading no contest to several charges under an agreement that allowed him to walk free after nearly a year in jail.

He pleaded no contest to one count of felony child abuse and two counts of misdemeanor prostitution. He also pleaded no contest to two additional child abuse counts on behalf of his company, Mantra Films.

Francis also pleaded guilty in a 2007 case to having sleeping pills and cash in his cell at Bay County Jail.

The charges stem from a case involving the filming of underage girls during spring break in 2003 in Panama City, Fla.

Francis makes an estimated $29 million a year on his "Girls Gone Wild" videos.

The federal charges claim Francis' companies claimed approximately $20 million in fraudulent business deductions. He is also accused of using offshore accounts to hide income.

No date has been set for the tax evasion trial.

[clevfan]

Las Vegas casino sues 'Girls Gone Wild' founder

By OSKAR GARCIA – 21 minutes ago

LAS VEGAS (AP) — "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis is being sued by a Las Vegas Strip casino for $2 million in gambling debts from February of last year.

A spokesman said Tuesday that Francis, who built a soft porn empire by making and marketing videos of young women in sexually provocative situations and exposing their breasts, satisfied his debt to the Wynn Las Vegas casino through "prior agreements" and plans to fight the lawsuit.

"The Wynn hotel has chosen not to honor its agreement to apply certain discounts to balances they have already been paid for," Francis spokesman Ronn Torossian said in a statement.

Torossian said Francis was waiting for his day in court with Wynn Resorts Ltd. Chief Executive Steve Wynn and planned on "exposing how exactly Mr. Wynn deceives his high-end customers."

Wynn Las Vegas spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne said she could not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit but said the casino wouldn't have sued unless other options were exhausted.

"We don't file lawsuits against people after 30, 60, 90 days," Dunne said. "This has been an issue with our collections department for some time."

The resort said in the lawsuit filed Friday in Clark County District Court that it loaned Francis $2.8 million in February 2007 but was repaid only $800,000. The suit seeks the remainder of the loan plus costs.

Francis, 35, also faces federal charges that he claimed more than $20 million in phony tax deductions for 2002 and 2003 and used offshore accounts to conceal income. A federal judge in April ordered Francis' trial on the charges moved to Los Angeles because he and most other witnesses in the case live in Southern California.

[clevfan]

Joe: You Lured Me to Vegas With Booze and Sex!

Posted Aug 7th 2008 6:24PM by TMZ Staff

"Girls Gone Wild" pimpresario Joe Francis has filed a doozy of a counterclaim to the Wynn's lawsuit alleging he owes $2 mil in gambling debts. He alleges, among other things, that the Wynn VIP hosts lured him to gamble in the casino using "alcohol, prostitutes and illegal drugs." Isn't that what Vegas is all about ?!?

In his counterclaim, filed late yesterday in Clark County Superior Court, Francis says the Wynn casino and VIP host Larry Altschul made promises to Joe -- a high roller -- to "induce [him] to stay and gamble at the Wynn Casino." He claims that the Wynn used diversions and created phony markers to obtain money by "false pretenses." Francis also alleges the Wynn "intentionally miscalculates markers and forges the high rollers' signatures in order a high rollers' win to a loss."

Francis' powerhouse lawyer David Houston tells us this is only the beginning. He says they're going to seek out all of the Wynn's high rollers to see if they were treated as badly as he says Francis was.

Stay tuned ...

[Dell Dude]

What these casinos do with markers is criminal. There should be a law that you can only bet with CASH. There should be another law that no alcohol is served or allowed in the gaming pit. Those two laws will put a stop to this noncents cold. Never happen, because the Nevada gambling interests have bought and paid politicians. Instead they go after online casinos who have never done anything close to this predatory. Usually, it's the opposite with AK SOLID type scammers giving them a bath.

[Pancho Sanza]

Harry, a marker is like a cheque.

[(sportman)]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What these casinos do with markers is criminal.

Agree...They build the egos and laugh to the bank

[all-in]

Originally Posted by Pancho Sanza

Harry, a marker is like a cheque.

In Nevada it is a felony not to pay your markers. Casino markers are, under Nevada law, considered to be checks and are not post-dated.

Before 2001 it was treated like any other unsecured line of credit. The creditor could sue civilly and thats it. Now the DA prosecutes and puts people in Jail if they do not pay in full.

I'm sure everyone has heard the stories of casinos sending hosts, thugs, and collectors to visit people who owed markers, even going to foreign countries and trying to muscle people into paying. Now the law does all the work for them.

[Dell Dude]

Originally Posted by all-in

In Nevada it is a felony not to pay your markers. Casino markers are, under Nevada law, considered to be checks and are not post-dated.

Before 2001 it was treated like any other unsecured line of credit. The creditor could sue civilly and thats it. Now the DA prosecutes and puts people in Jail if they do not pay in full.

I'm sure everyone has heard the stories of casinos sending hosts, thugs, and collectors to visit people who owed markers, even going to foreign countries and trying to muscle people into paying. Now the law does all the work for them.

Vegas used to be controlled by the mafia. Now, they are the mafia. If some idiot celebrity or athlete gets drunk and signs over $10 million dollars in markers then loses all of it, they have the full force of the law to collect all $10 million and the person has virtually no rights to protest or sue. Is this predatory behaviour? Or is an online casino allowing you to deposit with your CC predatory? Fuck you, Kyl. I hope you get brain cancer like Kennedy.

[Dell Dude]

I don't give a shitt about people like Chuck Barkely or feel sorry for them or excuse them. Not about them. It's about those greedy POS bastards who run these casinos being able to milk somebody for millions but kicking anyone out who can count cards with BJ. They have a limit on how much they are willing to lose and risk, but have no limit on how much they can win and milk. And no shame.

Leonard Tose
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leonard Hyman Tose (March 6, 1915 - April 15, 2003) born in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, made a fortune in the trucking industry and was owner of the Philadelphia Eagles. He was known for his lavish lifestyle and eventually lost his fortune because of a gambling addiction and alcoholism.

In 1991, the Sands sued him for $1.23 million in gambling debts. He countersued, contending that the casino got him too drunk to know what he was doing. Eventually, the casino won. There was testimony from a cocktail waitress swearing that her job description was "to keep Mr. Tose's glass filled." A monogrammed glass, courtesy of the casino, which she kept filled with top-shelf scotch.

In the end, he lost it all, by his estimate more than $20 million at Resorts International and $14 million at the Sands. In 1996, on his 81st birthday, Tose was evicted from his seven-bedroom Villanova mansion after losing the house in a U.S. Marshal's sale.

In 1999, he told a congressional hearing on compulsive gambling that his losses totaled between $40 million and $50 million. He spent his last years alone in a downtown hotel room. Mr. Tose died in his sleep in the hospice wing of St. Agnes Medical Center in Philadelphia. He was 88. An obituary by Dan Dunkin captured his life: "To put Leonard Tose's life in football terms, he threw on every down."*

[Total Square]

new jersey law was changed by the tose case. in the casinos, the waitresses can not offer cocktails, only coffee, soda, water, or anything non alcoholic. of course they can bring you cocktails if you ask for one, but they arent allowed by law to offer them

[Total Square]

Originally Posted by clevfan

Joe: You Lured Me to Vegas With Booze and Sex!

Posted Aug 7th 2008 6:24PM by TMZ Staff

"Girls Gone Wild" pimpresario Joe Francis has filed a doozy of a counterclaim to the Wynn's lawsuit alleging he owes $2 mil in gambling debts. He alleges, among other things, that the Wynn VIP hosts lured him to gamble in the casino using "alcohol, prostitutes and illegal drugs." Isn't that what Vegas is all about ?!?

In his counterclaim, filed late yesterday in Clark County Superior Court, Francis says the Wynn casino and VIP host Larry Altschul made promises to Joe -- a high roller -- to "induce [him] to stay and gamble at the Wynn Casino." He claims that the Wynn used diversions and created phony markers to obtain money by "false pretenses." Francis also alleges the Wynn "intentionally miscalculates markers and forges the high rollers' signatures in order a high rollers' win to a loss."

Francis' powerhouse lawyer David Houston tells us this is only the beginning. He says they're going to seek out all of the Wynn's high rollers to see if they were treated as badly as he says Francis was.

Stay tuned ...

funny how joey never had a problem taking the offered goodies until they came after their money

[clevfan]

From today's Las Vegas Sun:

Joe Francis, founder of the video company “Girls Gone Wild,” is back in trouble with the law.

At the request of Wynn Las Vegas, the district attorney’s bad check unit has opened a criminal investigation of Francis in an effort to recover $2 million in gambling debts.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Bernie Zadrowski, who runs the bad check unit, says Francis will be given an opportunity to pay back the money before an arrest warrant is issued.

Wynn Las Vegas filed a lawsuit against Francis in District Court on June 27, alleging he has paid back only $800,000 of the $2.8 million in gambling markers extended to him at the Strip resort in February 2007.

Francis also faces tax evasion charges in Reno.

[clevfan]

Gambler says Wynn plied him with prostitutes
Casino owner, accused of abetting losses, files defamation lawsuit

By Jeff German
LAS VEGAS SUN
Thu, Aug 14, 2008

In one corner is an art-collecting casino mogul and in the other is a millionaire soft-porn outlaw, and at stake are millions of dollars and the reputation of a Strip casino.

Steve Wynn’s lawsuit to collect a $2 million gambling debt from “Girls Gone Wild” promoter Joe Francis turned into a no-holds-barred legal donnybrook this week, as Francis alleged in court papers that the casino mogul used a variety of tactics to run up the gambler’s losses, including providing prostitutes at his Strip resort.

Wynn hit back with a defamation lawsuit just three hours after Francis’ filing.

Francis alleges Wynn was with Francis and the prostitutes in his hotel room and that Francis was told the women were Wynn’s “personal gift to you.”

Francis also claims Wynn Las Vegas deceived him into gambling large sums of money and forged casino credit documents to show that he’d gambled more than he did. Francis lists other tricks he alleges Wynn and his hotel used to keep him playing blackjack last year.

Wynn Las Vegas denies all of the allegations.

“The claims made in the counter suit by Joe Francis are not only false but scurrilous beyond imagination,” the resort said in a statement. “Mr. Francis obviously felt secure making such defamatory statements under the protection of a judicial pleading.

“However, he has recently made other false and defamatory public statements. We not only intend to press the proper charges for collection of his gambling debts, but we will also pursue Mr. Francis for damages resulting from those incredibly damaging and libelous statements. Each and every statement made by Mr. Francis is an outrageous falsehood and he will be held accountable for those statements.”

In Wynn’s defamation suit, his attorneys, Todd Bice and James Pisanelli, charge that Francis published those statements “with knowledge of their falsity” or “reckless disregard” for the truth.

The defamation lawsuit says Wynn has “suffered injury to his reputation, shame, mortification, hurt feelings and emotional distress,” and that Francis should be forced to pay for the damage he has done.

Wynn was recently in other news stories featuring the word “prostitution” — but in a very different context. On July 25, he got into a scuffle with two sisters who had been banned from Wynn Las Vegas in connection with alleged prostitution. Metro Police reported that Wynn was slapped in the face by one of the sisters as he was attempting to have them removed from the casino.

Francis’ credibility can be questioned. He is, after all, the guy who earned a fortune producing videos of drunken, stripping college girls, and he has been in trouble with the law in recent years. He is free on $1.5 million bail while facing tax evasion charges in Reno. This year, he pleaded no contest to felony child abuse and misdemeanor prostitution charges in Florida.

Wynn Las Vegas initially sued Francis in late June to recover $2 million in gambling debts the casino claims he incurred in February 2007. Last week, as the suit began to heat up, the casino asked the district attorney’s bad check unit to open a criminal case against Francis.

Francis’ response, Wynn’s attorneys say, has consisted of statements that “falsely imply that the hotel did not keep contractual agreements with Francis, and (that) the hotel did not do business with Francis in a fair and ethical manner. The statements falsely imply that Francis possesses some undisclosed facts that show that Wynn deceives customers.”

Francis alleges Wynn Las Vegas “intentionally miscalculates markers and forges the high-rollers’ signatures in order to change a high-roller’s win to a loss.” He goes on to claim that the resort also changes computer records to match the altered markers and destroys surveillance videotapes of the gambler’s play at the casino to make it more difficult for the gambler to dispute his losses.

Francis says Wynn Las Vegas offered him a number of perks during his junket, including the use of Wynn’s private jet, a posh hotel suite, player chip discounts, and the right to gamble alone at a table and select a dealer.

The casino, Francis claims, also promised to give him control over how many times a dealer would shuffle a deck of cards and the ability to bet up to $30,000 a hand, and said it would limit his credit line to $200,000 to minimize his losses.

But, he alleges, the casino switched dealers when he started to win and shuffled the deck without his approval, using a shuffle machine under the table outside of his view.

As his gambling debts piled up, Francis claims, Wynn and his casino created an effective diversion to distract him from thoroughly reviewing his markers — alcohol and prostitutes. Francis says Wynn plied him with wine from his private wine cellar.

Reno attorney Marie Mirch, who filed the countersuit for Francis, is hoping it attracts the attention of state gaming regulators.

“These are serious allegations,” she said. “They should be interested in looking into this conduct, but I’m skeptical that they will because the industry protects itself.”

Jerry Markling, chief of enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, plans to get a copy of the counterclaim.

“Once we get our hands on it, we certainly will look into the allegations,” Markling said.

[(sportman)]

Markling is laughing

[clevfan]

Joe Francis sues to rescind settlement

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY
AUG 19, 2008

LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Girls Gone Wild" entrepreneur Joe Francis wants a California court to rescind a settlement he claims a federal judge coerced him into signing.

Francis, who created the popular video series that features young women baring their breasts, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the parents of three underage girls, aiming to vacate an agreement reached in Panama City, Fla., and get his payout returned. The girls were filmed there, and their parents subsequently sued Francis.

He agreed to settle the civil case after U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak jailed him in 2007 for contempt of court.

In Francis' suit, he accuses Smoak of siding with former law partners to jail Francis and force him to settle on terms favorable to the girls. An attorney from a law firm where Smoak was once a partner represented the girls and their parents.

Smoak declined to comment on Francis' allegations.

The judge ordered Francis jailed in 2007 after finding him in contempt of court. Attorneys for the girls said Francis yelled obscenities at them during a mediation meeting and refused to settle the case.

Francis now claims he was bulldozed into signing the settlement _by being jailed — and that it should be revoked.

The 35-year-old multimillionaire's lawsuit states he understood that he "had no choice but to enter into the settlement in order to avoid further incarceration."

Francis declined to say how much he paid, but described it as "a fortune." He had previously told The Associated Press that the girls were asking for $70 million.

Robert Barnes, one of Francis' lawyers, said the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles because that's where Francis and his company, Mantra Films Inc., are based.

Francis said his actions are intended to protect average citizens.

"This fight is way bigger than me," Francis said in an interview after a press conference announcing the lawsuit. "If this stands, this single-handedly undermines the entire civil judicial process in this country."

Francis, who earns an estimated $29 million a year from the "Girls Gone Wild" series, asked supporters on his Web site to write letters to Congress and seek Smoak's impeachment.

His defiant tone Tuesday was different from April 2007, when he pleaded guilty to the federal contempt charge, weeping openly in a Panama City courtroom and apologizing for yelling during settlement negotiations.

Francis has been a legal lightning rod. Earlier this year, he pleaded no contest to criminal charges in Panama City to a handful of felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from his 2003 arrest on suspicion of filming underage girls. Francis declared his innocence immediately afterward, saying he entered the plea to get out of jail.

He still faces federal tax evasion charges in Los Angeles and has been sued in Las Vegas for $2 million in gambling debts that Francis claims he has already settled through "prior agreements."