Joe Francis’ Court Payment Cut In Half, Owes Steve Wynn $19 Million

Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis caught a break on Monday when a judge ruled that he must only pay casino mogul Steve Wynn $19 million instead of the courts original $40 million ruling.

The judge overseeing the case determined that Steve Wynn was not entitled to punitive damages which were awarded during the original lawsuit.

Francis was originally hit with a $40 million judgement after he claimed that Wynn had threatened to have him killed and buried somewhere in the Las Vegas desert.

The judge overseeing the new decision said punitive damages are based off the defendants net worth. The judge claims that Steve Wynn failed to show how much Joe Francis is actually worth.

According to Wynn, the amount of money Joe Francis is worth is hard to ascertain because he is good at hiding his assets.

Speaking to TMZ, Joe Francis called the decision a “massive victory” while nothing hat he will “aggressively appeal the remaining causes of action.”

According to the Girls Gone Wild honcho:

“Steve may have a winning record stealing the life savings away from working Americans in his safe haven of Las Vegas, but he will not be able to manipulate the California court system”

Wynn’s camp seeing things a little differently, noting that even during a second go around, the court is still choosing to side with the Wynn camp through a massive $19 million award.

In the meantime, Steve Wynn can continue to rest easy in one of his many multi-billion dollar casino and resort locations.