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"Walked Into A F--King Snake Pit": Girls Gone Wild's Joe Francis Defends Himself in New Show
Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis reflected on how he was charged with numerous crimes while building his empire in a new Peacock docuseries, streaming now.
One man was behind a cultural phenomenon that sparked young women to party, dance, and bare all on spring break: Joe Francis.
In 1997, he created Girls Gone Wild, which became a multimillion-dollar empire and pop culture phenomenon. But since the late '90s, he’s had a fall from grace, and faced a series of legal and criminal issues ranging from allegations of tax evasion and defamation to prostitution and featuring minors on his adult entertainment show.
Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story is a three-part documentary currently streaming on Peacock. It explores the rise and fall of Francis' empire — includes parts of the first one-on-one conversations with Francis in almost a decade, conducted by reporter Scaachi Koul.
Learn more about all the legal troubles Joe Francis faced.
Parents of underage girls file charges of sex abuse against Joe Francis
Joe Francis began fighting his first major legal battle in 2003, when a Girls Gone Wild crew filmed several women posing topless and engaging in sexual acts during spring break in Panama City, Florida. Four of the women were underage at the time, Yahoo reported. Francis fought the allegations for years, before pleading no contest to child abuse and prostitution charges in March 2008.
He was sentenced to 339 days in prison, which he’d already served. He was also ordered to pay more than $60,000 in fines, court costs, and restitution to the county.
“I have never committed any crime,” he claimed, according to The Los Angeles Times after the plea. “I pleaded guilty to get out of jail. A few corrupt individuals were able to keep an innocent man in jail for 11 months.”
His attorney said all of the women signed agreements that they were of legal age to be on Girls Gone Wild.
“But it makes no difference under Florida law, they still committed a crime,” Roy Black said, per The Los Angeles Times. “I understand why Joe is upset. In his business, you can be doing your job and go to jail for 11 months.”
In the new Peacock series, he told journalist Scaachi Koul that he was the real victim in the case.
“They were the ones that victimized us,” he said. “I believe, we all believe, that they were put up by the Panama City police, and it was all an operation. So, I believe that was quite orchestrated. I walked into a f-cking snake pit, OK?”
Joe Francis pleads guilty to tax evasion
Joe Francis added another legal issue to his list in 2007, when he was indicted by a federal grand jury for tax evasion, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He was accused of deducting more than $20 million in false business expenses on Mantra Films Inc. and Sands Media Inc.’s 2002 and 2003 corporate income tax returns. Those companies produced and sold the Girls Gone Wild videotapes and DVDs. The indictment accused him of using offshore bank accounts to conceal his income.
Although, according to The New York Times, he blamed his accountant for the tax missteps, in 2009, Francis ended up taking a plea deal, and was sentenced to 301 days already served in jail, and a year of probation for filing the false income tax returns, according to TODAY. He was also required to pay $250,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
Joe Francis convicted of holding women hostage in his mansion and assaulting one
In 2013, Joe Francis was convicted of false imprisonment and assault after he invited three women into his limo in Hollywood in 2011, TODAY and NBC News reported. When the women tried to leave the limo, the driver allegedly held up a sheriff’s badge and refused to let them leave. They were taken to Francis’ home, where he was accused of “[grabbing] one of the women by the throat and hair and slamming her head into the tile floor four times.” Afterward, he told the women not to call police.
“The victims in this case should be commended for their courage in stepping forward and reporting these attacks, and for not being intimidated from seeing this matter through the justice system,” city attorney Carmen Trutanich said, according to TODAY.
He was sentenced to serve 270 days in jail, as well as 36 months of probation. He was also ordered to attend psychological counseling and an anger management course, NBC News reported.
Casino billionaire Steve Wynn sues Joe Francis for defamation
In 2012, casino mogul Steve Wynn filed a slander charge against Joe Francis for claiming that Wynn had threatened to kill him, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
It all started when Wynn sued Francis in 2008 over Francis’ $2 million gambling debt at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort, the Associated Press reported. That was when Francis first made the slandering comments against Wynn in court, so Francis argued he shouldn’t be liable for the statements since it was a court proceeding, but a jury disagreed.
Francis testified at the slander trial he was told Wynn had threatened to hit him in the head with a shovel and bury him in the desert. Wynn testified he never made those threats, and that the statements damaged his reputation and put his casino license at risk. A judge ordered Francis to pay $21 million.
Watch more of Joe Francis’ new interviews in the Peacock exclusive Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story, streaming now.
