Well...... it was only a matter of time. That's all I gotta say.
[img height=120 alt="Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild franchise, poses as he arrives at his own birthday party at Six Flags Magic Mountain, May 11, 2006, in Valencia, Calif." src="http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20061214/160_ap_j_francis_061214.jpg" width=160 border=0] [FONT size=1]Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild franchise, poses as he arrives at his own birthday party at Six Flags Magic Mountain, May 11, 2006, in Valencia, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)[/FONT]
[H3]'Girls Gone Wild' founder fined $500,000[/H3] [P class=timeStamp]Updated Tue. Jan. 23 2007 8:44 AM ET
[P class=storyAttributes]Associated Press
[!-- dateline --]LOS ANGELES [!-- /dateline --]-- The founder of the raunchy "Girls Gone Wild'' videos has been fined US$500,000 and sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours of community service for violating U.S. federal laws designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of minors.
The sentencing of Joe Francis, 33, on Monday was part of a plea deal he made with the U.S. Department of Justice in September, when he plead guilty to failing to document the ages of young women engaging in sexually explicit acts such as exposing their breasts in the tapes.
Under the deal, Francis acknowledged he included footage of two drunken, underage girls shot in Florida in the videos.
Francis said he was targeted because the "government needs to make an example.''
"The FBI investigated me for five years ... and this is the best that they could come up with,'' he said.
Last month, a federal judge in Florida ordered Francis' Santa Monica-based company, Mantra Films Inc., to pay a $1.6-million fine for featuring in its videos two 17-year-olds who were filmed on Panama City Beach during spring break in 2003. Francis and the company's three top officers were each ordered to perform eight hours of community service monthly for 30 months.
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