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Thread: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

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    Default StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    from

    (snip)According to Welt.de, the owner of Manwin Licensing International, which owns some of the most visited adult sites on the Internet including Youporn.com and Pornhub.com was arrested today at the Brussels Airport.

    34-year-old Fabian Thylmann was arrested on suspicion to have evaded taxes.

    According to the report, German officials seized numerous computers and documents at the offices of “Manwin Germany GmbH” last week.

    Manwin along with Digital Playground sued ICM registry operator of the .XXX registry and ICANN for Anti-trust violations.

    In October ICM counter-sued Manwin for $120 million dollars for “Combination or Conspiracy in Restraint of Trade”, violation of the Sherman Act and Violation of the Cartwright Act; Unfair Competition Under the Lanham Act and Tortuous Interference With Prospective Clients.

    The case between Manwin and ICM is still pending in a California Federal Court.

    Since filing the lawsuit Manwin Acquired Digital Playground the co-plaintiff in the ICM/ICANN case."(snip)


    ... and the backstory goes a little deeper ... from

    (snip)"The porn industry’s Fabian Thylmann, managing partner of Manwin, the elusive Luxembourg-based adult entertainment company that was the largest single donor to the ‘No’ on Ballot Measure B campaign which sought—unsuccessfully—to block a Los Angeles County ballot measure that now requires condom use in adult film productions, was arrested last week in Belgium for suspicion of tax evasion in Germany. According to a news report on the AVN website, Thylmann “…has been taken into custody by Belgian officials on an arrest warrant issued by a German court on suspicion of tax evasion. Contrary to some news reports, AVN has learned that Thylmann was arrested late last week, reportedly at the Belgian airport.” Thylmann remains in custody in Belgium awaiting extradition to Germany to answer to the charges.

    In October, officials from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) had separately complained to officials at the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) about what they believed was money laundering and illegal campaign donations made by Manwin to an United States election campaign made by a foreign company and/or foreign nationals. With over $150,000 in donations, Luxembourg-based Manwin appeared to be largest single donor to the ‘No on B’ campaign to defeat Los Angles County Ballot Measure B, the County of Los Angeles Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, which AHF spearheaded. Measure B passed with an overwhelming margin of the voter support—57% in favor to 43% opposed. The ballot measure now requires producers of adult films to obtain a public health permit from the County, follow all health and safety laws, including condom use, and pay a permit fee to cover enforcement of the law.

    “From our reading of the campaign finance filings and our own research into the issue over the past few months it appears that a foreign porn cartel—Manwin—provided the major funding for the opposition campaign to our successful condoms in porn ballot measure, something that appears to be illegal,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and one of the five named proponents of the ballot initiative. “Now, Manwin’s Thylmann is arrested in Belgium for tax evasion, the first cousin of money laundering. While we are happy that funds from Manwin did not seem to adversely affect the outcome of the Measure B election, we nevertheless urge the FEC to continue its investigation of our complaint against Manwin over what we believe are those tainted and illegal campaign contributions.”

    After closely examining the ‘Recipient Committee Campaign Statements,’ legally required campaign finance reports filed with the Office of the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder/County Clerk by opponents of Ballot Measure B, the so-called ‘condoms in porn’ measure in Los Angeles County, backers of the measure from AHF and elsewhere believe that the bulk of the funding behind opposition to the measure came from Manwin. The murky origin of the funds for the donations raises serious questions about money from a foreign porn cartel possibly being directed to an election campaign in the United States—an illegal act that constitutes a felony."(snip)


    I have no idea where all of this might be headed, other than the fact that Manwin has 'pissed off' the 'wrong' people ... and now has the IRS as well as european gov't tax agencies combing through corporate business records and accounts.


    PS thanks to LaurenAus for the original 'catch' of this news report
    Last edited by Melonie; 12-15-2012 at 05:28 AM.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Of all the illegal campaign contributions going on, they pick this one to focus on! Interesting...I'll hold off saying anything further except that illegal campaign contributions are the least of America's worries when a democracy turns into a corporate oligarchy.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Re: Title

    Manwin owns pretty much every major tubesite + Playboy plus + Brazzers + Webcams.com + Digital Pictures + Reality Kings, etc.

    It is not official on whether they own Streamate. There are many forums (including ours) full of speculation based entirely on one blog post by someone who isnt exactly unbiased towards Manwin:

    Many is the time I told Fabian I would live to see him taken away in handcuffs…..The good is I did, the bad is it isn't for what he should have been arrested for, the good is it's likely just the beginning. Whose laughing now Fabian?
    No news or press release about Manwin has included any mention of Streamate (including this article), it isnt official if they own it or not? Given how many performers work SM on this site and how many other sites Manwin owns (30+), can we scale back the fear mongering SW vs SM campaign a bit? The original post about this in the lounge was accurate. The title of this, after the fact, is a great way to get clicks but is incorrect.





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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Quote Originally Posted by CamGirl4M View Post
    Of all the illegal campaign contributions going on, they pick this one to focus on! Interesting...I'll hold off saying anything further except that illegal campaign contributions are the least of America's worries when a democracy turns into a corporate oligarchy.
    ?

    Manwin is owned by a German national... Manwin the corporation is headquartered in Luxembourg. He was busted in Belgium for evading taxes in Germany. Basically a tic-tac-toe across the European Union.





    Quote Originally Posted by Procrasturbator View Post
    So how many stumps can you fit in your pussy?

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Yes, but they are supposedly focused on him due to illegal campaign contributions towards fighting the ballot proposition in California. Contribution of $150,000 which is nothing in the grand scheme of illegal campaign contributions.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Given how many performers work SM on this site and how many other sites Manwin owns (30+), can we scale back the fear mongering SW vs SM campaign a bit? The original post about this in the lounge was accurate. The title of this, after the fact, is a great way to get clicks but is incorrect.
    Granted that Manwin is not a public company, thus their official holdings are not a matter of public record. However, there is extremely little doubt that an acquisition of StreaMates by Manwin occurred after Manwin Holdings took out a 9 figure loan from a certain Wall St hedge fund. Manwin's trademarks however ARE a matter of public record, and there are at least 60 of them ( although StreaMates isn't one of them, but that doesn't necessarily relate to StreaMates ownership or lack thereof ) ...

    As far as slamming Mike South, for a fact Mike has expended a great deal of effort trying to look 'under the hood' at Manwin's operations.

    (snip)"If you do your homework, Manwin was originally called Mansef.”

    Although South didn’t go into any of the details, here’s what happened with Mansef.

    In October 2009, the U.S. Secret Service’s Organized Fraud Task Force in Atlanta seized about $6.4 million in funds from two Fidelity bank accounts controlled by Mansef. By this point, the company was already experiencing internal troubles.

    Matt Keezer, one of the original founders of Brazzers, had left earlier that year; his brother Phil then joined as CEO, only to leave within a few months. At least some of the founders had grown concerned for their safety and hired security guards, who for several months patrolled their neighborhood 24 hours a day in SUVs with tinted windows.

    In response to the asset seizure, Mansef claimed that it had opened the Fidelity accounts simply to ease payment processing in the U.S., but the Feds said that more than $9 million had been wired into the two accounts over a three-month period from banks in Israel and other countries on financial-fraud watch lists. The founders decided it was time to sell the company and that’s where Fabian Thylman comes in.

    South took all this to mean money laundering and told Meadows Manwin was up on charges of that.

    “And lots of other illegal activities,” he added.

    “There are allegations that they’re involved with an outfit in Costa Rico that does card banging and things of that nature. Allegations reveal that Fabian Thylman definitely had a personal and a business relationship with the people in Costa Rico who were doing that.”

    South also referred to Thylman’s keynote speech at AEE in which Thylman [again, not quoting South] says he made a strong enough case over a 10-month period in 2010 and 2011 to convince a Wall Street fund [which Thylman declined to name] to agree to a nine-figure loan in April 2011."(snip)


    You're obviously free, of course, to 'write this off' as an exclusively european problem that is not 'worthy' of SW reader attention - and also obviously free to similarly 'write off' the SoCal illegal campaign contribution charges as an unrelated 'coincidence'. However, there is documented proof that US gov't agencies have an active interest in Manwin ( and predecessor Mansef ). And Manwin recently 'pissing off' the 'wrong people' in SoCal merely provides added motivation for the US gov't to start poking around Manwin's financial affairs ( again ), using the German charges and the illegal US campaign contribution allegations as a reason to (re)open investigations.


    As to 'fearmongering', I'll repeat again that I have no idea where this might be headed. Personally speaking, I choose to believe that SW readers who happen to work SM are 'mature' enough to read the Manwin news blurbs and draw their own conclusions. It's also highly likely that some SW readers also happen to work other Manwin owned 'divisions', from SoCal porn producers / studios to webcams.com . IMHO this makes the Manwin Bust news blurb worthy of posting in the Industry Insight forum.
    Last edited by Melonie; 12-15-2012 at 05:23 PM.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    I'm a bit skeptical that it has anything to do with Streamate - that is not the name on my paycheck.


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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    ^On the title alone it doesnt. Maybe indirectly we could make some kind of argument but this is just a copypasta of an article about the owner of manwin being arrested, so:

    Go to:

    http://www.webcams.com/
    http://www.brazzers.com/
    http://www.digitalplayground.com/

    ^small sampling of Manwin products. Check the billing, headquarters, etc. All of them are Manwin, all of them use the same sales agents and resellers, all have more or less has the same uniform final signature as Manwin tends to do for the majority of their products. Id assume is their branding strategy? They arent shy about their acquisitions.

    Similarly all of Manwin's products retain the same Whois data - they use the same whois privacy protection provider across almost all of their sites (Playboy is a big exception).

    Go to http://www.streamate.com/ and scroll to the bottom - check 2257 records report... still randomness in Cyprus and no sign of Manwin's partnerships with SegPay. Check their whois, same small tech company in Washington State that has always been behind it. If you need to contact them my mail, their mailing addresses on their site are all still Washington state, USA. No signs of Manwin.

    When you are acquired by Manwin you are swallowed by them.

    If SM is now owned by Manwin (no sign of that) or the deal hasnt been finalized (possible?) it still wouldnt apply for the taxes that this guy has been busted for. You cant bust someone on preemptive tax evasion on a not-yet official business acquisition and therefore make scary predictions for people whose livelihoods are based on said site. It is just like, again?

    For the porn industry this is a big deal given how many tube sites and porn studios Manwin owns. Maybe he'll just pay the fines and this is just a blip but still. It is an issue for Webcams.com as that is clearly a cam site. Even Livejasmin has been busted on tax evasion in Europe the past, so I guess we could talk about LJ and Webcams since they are both bigbox cam sites with tax issues... but ok, Streamate it is... again.

    That isnt to say SM wont ever be acquired, Porn sites get merged, acquired, resold and revamped all the time - but this thread is called "The owner of SM has been busted for tax evasion" which is false. The uh Microsoft of internet porn however has been busted, which is a huge deal, and it kinda blows it is being derailed this way for an ongoing "SM is falling apart SW ladies" theory bc this arrest is big adult industry news - and so many other topics could be extrapolated from it.
    Last edited by roast; 12-15-2012 at 11:51 PM.





    Quote Originally Posted by Procrasturbator View Post
    So how many stumps can you fit in your pussy?


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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Thanks for the clarifications Roast! I admit, when I read this I immediately thought "Shawn got arrested?!?!" LOL! Because as far as I have heard... this Shawn guy still owns Streamate.....? His name is still the one signed on my checks....?

    I really don't think Manwin has acquired Streamate... yet?
    xoxo ~ Sarah




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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    ^^^ there is no documented proof one way or another, since Manwin is not a 'public' company. However, when researching all types of investments, I usually don't go wrong if I 'follow the money'. And the money trail shows that Manwin borrowed something in excess of 100 MILLION dollars last year from Wall St. hedge funds. They wouldn't have taken out a huge 'loan' with equally huge interest payments if it was NOT to be used for the acquisition of some MAJOR businesses. And the officially announced business buyouts by Manwin last year cannot explain where some ~50 MILLION dollars went.

    As far as Shawn goes, when a company is acquired the 'new owners' often leave existing company management in place to operate the company. When FIAT bought Chrysler existing managment was left in place, and the same signature names still appear on Chrysler paychecks. But this does not mean that existing company management still has the same 'free hand' in regard to setting policy / direction / priorities as they had prior to the 'buy-out'.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Jinkies!

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    I'm still reading everyone's responses, but this is mindblowing. Honestly, I didn't know so many main, popular sites were owned by this main parent company. Luckily, it seems to not be as major as it appears to be, but definitely attention-grabbing. I hope everything is okay, or gets worked out.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    .....
    Last edited by Via Flaminia; 01-04-2013 at 09:16 AM.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Thank you. Very Informative...I've been wondering if I should sign up there and see if they might be into some alternative entertainment. Smashing plates, beer bottles, wine bottles plate glass etc.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Manwin doesn't own Streamate.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    And to add to that, companies with this high of a fucking profit never get in trouble. They have all the best legal teams that money can buy. An advantage to being wealthy.

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    Default Re: StreaMates Owner Busted on Tax Evasion Charges

    Tell that to Bernie Madoff

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