'Girls Gone Wild' Francis now in IRS trouble

By Stone Martindale Apr 12, 2007, 0:24 GMT

Joe Francis - © Glenn Harris / Photorazzi

The auteur of tit-illating video, Joe Francis, has been bagged big time.  Feds in Nevada reveal Francis was caught in a $20 million corporate tax evasion scheme on top of his other Florida legal woes.

Joe Francis, the "Girls Gone Wild" founder, was indicted on federal tax evasion charges "for illegally deducting more than $20 million in phony business expenses from his 2002 and 2003 corporate tax returns," reports the Smoking Gun.com.

Francis, 34, sought to conceal income through the use of offshore companies and nominees as outlines in the court documents, link below.

Allegedly Francis "transferred $15 million from one offshore bank account to a California brokerage account in the name of a Cayman Islands corporation he controlled."

Below you'll find a link to the Smoking Gun where a copy of the indictment filed against Francis is posted. Francis, if convicted of the federal charges, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.

Francis was arrested in Florida yesterday on an unrelated federal warrant of contempt issued by a judge from a civil lawsuit brought against him by seven underage women who were filmed by "Girls Gone Wild" cameramen in Florida in 2003.

 legal-court-papers-on-Francis(7 pages)