First Wesley Snipes, now this! Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild Videos and DVD's was brought up on tax evasion charges a while back and now they have moved his hearing to Los Angeles.
Francis is being charged with not reporting his income properly, which allowed him to pay less taxes. The government alleges Francis claimed over $20 million in phony deductions over the years, and that Francis has off-shore accounts where he is hiding other income.
Francis has been sued before, but previous legal matters were issues of sexual misconduct, underage girls and for being attacked in his own home. He claims the government is after him in a sort of witch hunt.
He has been charged in the past for child-abuse and prostitution, but was released from prison in March of this year after posting $1.5 million bail. Francis started the production company Mantra Films which produces the Girls Gone Wild videos when he was 24, just two years out of college. The company reportedly grosses over $100 million a year.
Tax evasion and tax fraud bring with them heavy penalties, including jail time, fines, probation, garnishing of wages and other penalties. In fact, it was tax evasion charges that eventually put Al Capone the famous Chicago mobster behind bars, not murder or anything else.
