Girls Gone Wild Bankruptcy May Affect Women Who Sued Joe Francis


The Girls Gone Wild bankruptcy case filed this week has been reported as an attempt by the company’s high-profile (and often in trouble) head Joe Francis — a controversial figure whose shady empire has somehow survived the internet porn boom — but others in legal battles with Francis stand to lose more after the filing.

The Girls Gone Wild bankruptcy is said to have been prompted by a stunningly large Vegas debt accrued by Francis in the casino of Sin City magnate Steve Wynn, and, in an attempt to evade paying up, the GGW mogul reportedly engaged the financial maneuver.

While the expected Girls Gone Wild bankruptcy likely won’t have much of an impact financially on Wynn, who is incredibly wealthy, other parties stand to lose big time if the restructuring is approved. St. Louis woman Tamarra Favazza is one of the many women objecting to use of their images in Francis’ DVDs, and she was awarded a $5.7 million judgment against GGW last summer due to the fact she never consented to not only bare her breasts but to appear on camera or DVDs at all.

Favazza’s attorney Steve Evans explained earlier that the Girls Gone Wild agents had violated the woman’s privacy — first by exposing her breasts without her consent by pulling her top down and later including the assault in a GGW DVD:

“When the someone at Mantra decided to put her in the DVD, that’s when the violation of privacy occurred … Our client’s position is she was having fun dancing at a club, and someone pulled her top off. Even though something like that doesn’t happen on regular basis, it didn’t cause her alarm to call police. What caused alarm was finding it on DVD later.”

A River Front Times blog explains that in the Girls Gone Wild bankruptcy, Favazza is Francis’ second biggest creditor after Wynn:

“Favazza is listed as the second-biggest creditor in the GGW Brands bankruptcy. Casino mogul Steve Wynn is the largest — owed more than $10 million. Last year Wynn won a $7.5 million defamation suit against Francis, who’d claimed that Wynn cheated gamblers. At the time, Francis owed Wynn Las Vegas LLC $2 million in gambling losses. He owes Wynn Las Vegas $10.3 million.”

The Girls Gone Wild bankruptcy is likely to be of the restructuring variety, and it is not clear whether the woman will be able to collect upon the judgment.

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