A Wynn Wynn Situation: Girls Gone Wild Founder Hit With $20 Million Defamation Verdict

“Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis, 39, has long shown remarkably bad judgment on legal matters, including his tax evasion conviction and charges of contempt. He can now add a $20 million damage award that he will have to pay casino mogul Steve Wynn — not counting possible punitive damages. The latest court loss for Francis was over an unpaid gambling bill and led to slander by Francis. He will now pay at least 10 times the amount of his gambling losses to Wynn, 70, and that is not counting a $7.5-million defamation judgment awarded by a Nevada judge this year. That is almost $30 million and counting.

An L.A. County Superior Court jury found that Francis slandered Wynn in interviews and private communications when he said that Wynn threatened to kill him and bury his body in the desert over a $2-million gambling bill from 2007. Francis said that Wynn’s people racked up the bill with the use of booze and prostitutes.

The jury awarded $8 million above what Wynn’s counsel asked for.

Francis said that the threats came in communications through emails with Quincy Jones, the music producer. However, Jones denied ever saying anything of the kind to Francis and, worse yet, Wynn testified that he never met Francis and did not know who he was until he was told about the alleged threats. Wynn also does not use email.

It would have been more credible if Francis said Wynn threatened to punch a hole in his face like a rare Picasso. Of course, the difference is that the Picasso has objective value and people want to see it.

True to form, Francis is doubling down and appealing.

Source: LA Times

18 thoughts on “A Wynn Wynn Situation: Girls Gone Wild Founder Hit With $20 Million Defamation Verdict”

  1. Man, slipping out on a bar bill is expensive if you get silly about it; he acts like a Saudi Princess.

  2. What I thought was interesting is neither one showed up in court….At least for the verdict….. I suppose the A team attorneys did alright on both sides….

    Going back to the Texas Riveria for the day….

  3. Are you Dick Cheney. Maybe you’re Donald Rumsfeld. Do you work standing up at your desk?

  4. keeps digging himself deeper. What a fool.

    You got to know when to hold ’em; know when to fold ’em; know when to walk away; and know when to run.

  5. I read about this trial in the local Vegas paper. Quincy Jones was the star witness. He is apparently friends of the plaintiff and defendant, and obviously the jury believed Jones. Wynn is starting to look eerily like Liberace. On that topic, Michael Douglas is playing Liberace in an upcoming flick and Matt Damon plays Liberace’s younger boy toy. Sort of stream of consciousness comment, but Vegas is the theme.

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