So sorry to sully your year-end celebrations, but just like his late-night cable TV ads, Girls Gone Wild racy video franchise founder Joe Francis refuses to go away.
This fall, Francis pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of filing false tax
returns. The plea deal also mandated that Francis pay back taxes and interest totaling $249,705, as well as a $10,000 fine. But he avoided additional jail time when a judge sentenced him to the the time he had served while waiting for resolution of the case.
And that, we all hoped at the time, was the end of our attention to Francis and his icky business enterprise.
Alas, no such luck.
Francis is back, now contending that a vengeful IRS has improperly frozen his bank account. So he's has filed a lawsuit against the tax agency.
At issue is the almost $34 million lien the IRS filed following Francis' plea deal. The IRS says it's for federal taxes Francis owes for the 2001 to 2003 tax years.
Francis says the IRS is just irked that he got off so lightly in connection with the false returns case.
This isn't the first time that Francis and his attorneys have tried to paint the video entrepreneur as the victim. Earlier, they said the tax case was evidence of the "IRS gone wild."
Back then, that was just talk. But this time, Francis and his lawyers have put it in official legalese.
In the lawsuit filing, Francis claims that the only circumstances under which assets can be frozen
are if the taxpayer is preparing to flee the country, if the taxpayer
is attempting to move assets out of the reach of the IRS, or if the
taxpayer appears to be going bankrupt.
None of those applies to him, argues Francis, so he wants the court to free up his money.
If you want a preview of the case's arguments, check out The Tax Lawyer's Blog. It appears from that detailed post, Joe has a tough legal row to hoe.
Related posts:
- Tax plea for Girls Gone Wild founder
- Girls Gone Wild lawyer claims 'IRS Gone Wild'
- Joe Francis' 'Wild' deduction defense
- Girls Gone Wild founder facing tax fraud charges
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