NL- I’m not a lawyer, nor a genius, but in my opinion sounds like money laundering. And US must have had quite a bit on them to seize the money, and then take it to court. Wouldn’t they usually charge them, and go back and forth with motions for a couple years before it got anywhere near seizure and court?Let me get more info.UPDATE- Thank you to C for all the legal docs concerning the case. Since it’s about 15 pages long I might just post some excerpts later. Readers let me know if you are interested in anything in particular.
This is from Georgia Court records http://dockets.justia.com/docket
United States of America v. $5,282,495.03 seized from Fidelity Bank Account X-0691 et al
Plaintiff: United States of America
Defendant: $5,282,495.03 seized from Fidelity Bank Account X-0691 and $1,100,957.44 seized from Fidelity Bank Account X-0878
Claimants: Mansef, Inc. and Premium Services, LLC
Case Number: 1:2009cv03371
Filed: December 1, 2009
Court: Georgia Northern District Court
Office: Atlanta Office [ Court Info ]
County: Fulton
Presiding Judge: Carnes
Nature of Suit: Other Statutes – Other
Cause: 18:1960 Prohibition of unlicensed money transmitting businesses
Jurisdiction: U.S. Government Plaintiff
Jury Demanded By: None
Cindi:
You are quite right: the United States is essentially charging Brazzers with money laundering.
I believe Brazzers is represented by Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp and Alston & Bird, two “Big Law” firms that routinely handle multimillion-dollar cases.
I believe Brazzers has a motion to dismiss the action pending.
I’ll try to get the details for those interested.
Brazzers is relatively a new company, and so far has done its best to crush the market competition by operating several tube sites where every studio’s copyright protected content is made available for free. The United States government could care less about the interests of the adult industry, so this intervention means Brazzers has been involved in far worse crimes than operating pirate web sites and stealing copyright protected adult content. I’m eager to find out more about those criminal activities.
Not to mention that one of their contract stunt cock Keiran Lee, I think is working in this country illegally. Me thinks his work visa ran out a long time ago.
They also run several Mainstream movie tube sites. The list of dirt that they do goes on, and on, and on.
Prejudiced witness your honor, Mr Lee and Mr C3X are currently at odds. I will say Brazzers is not a good group of sites, not impressed.
Also 6 million seems like to have on hand for a web porn company, like 5.5 million too much. Vivid and Wicked dont have that much cash on hand at any one time…combined. They seem to have definitely overloaded the washer.
Sure Bill,
Although Keiran Lee works in the U.S. for Brazzers it is not, at least technically, illegal. The reason being that he isn’t working for an American company. In all actuality, Brazzers is a Canadian company hiring a British Subject to work for them on U.S. territory.
Mark Spiegler:
Hmmm… I’m not quite sure about that. My understanding is that if income is earned in the Unites States (even if the income is paid by a foreign entity), that income must be reported and taxed appropriately.
Just like, even though it’s incorporated in Canada, Brazzers pays taxes to the IRS (or possibly not!).
As a Canadian I can tell you, there are no special work benefits for British subjects in Canada. That treatment disappeared many years ago. There is a point system and everyone joins the line to be evaluated. A British citizen can, however, visit Canada without a visa (unlike some countries i.e. Mexico, Czech Republic).
In Canada, you must report world wide income though tax treaties in affect with the U.S.A. (and others) allow a taxpayer to eliminate double counting.
If the U.S. is anything like Canada, you either need to be:
1. A citizen
2. A landed immigrant
3. A holder of a work visa
to work in the country. Any other situation would get you ejected from the country. Not sure what the situation is in the States.
You’re spot on, Art, the rules and conditions of employment in America are the same as in Canada: If and when somebody works in this country, they must be either a legal citizen or a legal immigrant or a holder of a work visa. However, as I mentioned before I believe whatever that has gotten Brazzers in hot water with The United States government is far worse than any violation of copyright or hiring illegal workers and such. We’ll find out more about this soon.
This just in Pink Visual Files $6.75M Suit Against Brazzers http://www.xbiz.com/news/117538
This is great news. I applaud Pink Visual for going after these thieving criminals, and finally someone grows the balls to actually confront the piracy issue head-on. Mansef and its cohorts thought that they could hunker down in Canada and steal the IP of Americans. Money laundering and copyright infringement ought to make a solid foundation for a fat federal case. I hope the courts suck them dry of every thieving cent, and if there’s any justice, some serious jail time in the U.S., where they can get a dose of reality.
All thieves take note.
Has AVN become so inept that it completely missed these stories, or is there something more to it? Hmmm…
AVN intentionally ignores these kind of stories or pays very little attention to. That’s because AVN’s regular advertisers who also happen to be the usual AVN Awards nominees and winners are working for and with Brazzers, including Jules Jordan Video which distrubutes Brazzers DVDs in a market devastated by the pirate web sites operated by Brazzers. This is a fact; make of it what you wish.
Lob The Colonel a softball and don’t be surprised if he knocks it out of the park!
I haven’t looked through AVN since it started looking more like a pamphlet and less like a magazine, but are Jules Jordan and Brazzers still paying for multiple full-page and two-page-spread ads?
Oh wait–it looks like AVN did post a story that mentions Mansef, but conveniently fails to mention that Mansef is the parent company of Brazzers.
“A” for effort?
Absolutely right, Colonel. Brazzers itself has ads throughout AVN (but not in XBIZ, which broke the PV lawsuit story; although, it may take ad money from some subsidiary companies). It’s quite disingenuous for AVN to state that they are against industry piracy, while pocketing ad rev from known thieves like Mansef. Fishbein and AVN—”the industry’s most respected publication”—are clearly sucking the devil’s dick.
No respect here.
NiceGirl says:
‘A for effort?’
No dear, in fact it’s M for misinformation.
And Third Axis, I’m with you on this, brother: I have no respect for dishonorable thieves and those who aid and support them in one way or another.
If AVN was a German paper during WW2 it would say that the Sixth Army is still holding out in Stalingrad in 1944. AVN has not and will never be more than a shill for the industry.
“If AVN was a German paper during WW2 it would say that the Sixth Army is still holding out in Stalingrad in 1944.”
lololololololololol….
so true 🙂
The oddest thing about the Brazzers/JJV partnership is that it still does not exempt JJV’s dvds from being posted on all the pirate sites (not just tubes, but torrents too) owned by Brazzers. It is no coincidence that any Brazzers torrent only lasts a few hours on any torrent site.
Ha ha the mystery of Keiran Lee goes on…..
I’m curious as to why the U.S. government even grants work permits to foreigners in the adult entertainment industry to begin with. Is there some kind of labour shortage in the pornography industry that permits porn stars to get a work visa?
Gomer:
Foreign talent usually, if not always, works in the U.S. illegally. They either incorporate and have their check made payable to the corporation, or they have their check made payable to their agent, who then cashes it and pays the talent.
@NiceGirl:
Thanks for the info. You confirmed my suspicions which were that while some of them might be working legally in the U.S., many were not.
It hardly seems logical that the U.S. Government would grant work visas for foreign porn talent on the same basis that it does for foreign mainstream actors, musicians or other entertainers.
Even with the tricks you mention — incorporating or directing that payment be made to an agent — prosecution and/or deportation would still be a relatively straightforward matter if the authorities could be bothered to act.
I suppose it’s really just a question of will. Deporting foreign pornstars who are working illegally in the U.S. is not much of a priority for the authorities. Investigating these cases takes time and money and in the scheme of things probably just isn’t worth the effort.