The ongoing court fight pitting Girls Gone Wild producer Joe Francis against Steve Wynn took another turn today, with a grand jury indicting Francis for not making good on the $2.5m he allegedly owes the Wynn Las Vegas casino. The specific felony charges laid by Clark County district attorneys are Theft and “Drawing and passing a check without sufficient funds in drawee bank with intent to defraud, presumptions of intent to defraud.” Francis is free on $132,500 bail, with arraignment scheduled for Feb. 16. If convicted, Francis could face up to four years in prison.
The squabble between the soft porn peddler and the casino magnate began in February 2007, when Francis signed markers worth $2.5m at Wynn’s gaming establishment. Francis reportedly repaid $500k of the debt, but now seems to believe that Wynn should be happy receiving 20 cents on the dollar. Clearly, all that time Francis has spent convincing drunk college girls to flash their boobies has impaired his ability to negotiate with sober men.
In 2009, Wynn won a civil suit against Francis re the debt, which Francis promptly appealed. Wynn filed a separate civil suit in 2010 over claims Francis allegedly made in public to the effect that Wynn had threatened to kill him. Francis is adamant that he intends to fight the latest charges, insisting that he owes Wynn nothing because Wynn waited 15 months to cash his marker, by which time Francis had closed the account on which the check was written. According to Joe, “the moral of this story is, don’t gamble at the Wynn casinos or this will happen to you.” Joe Francis as the voice of moral authority? What’s this world coming to? Oh well, let’s see how long it takes Francis’ 300 lb. cellmate to convince him to ‘go wild.’
