Cleveland- Sami Harb, whose business Movies By Mail, www.moviesbymail.com, was raided by the Feds earlier this month, www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=23128 didn’t exactly put it in those words but his feelings about the Free Speech Coalition [FSC] leave little wiggle room for the exchange of future pleasantries.
I spoke to Harb Wednesday afternoon. He had just renewed his membership with the Free Speech Coalition. And now he wonders why he even bothered. Harb updated his membership before the raid earlier this month and placed calls to FSC regarding his case after it.
“Two or three days went by, and I didn’t hear from anyone,” he tells me. “I really expected to get a phone call. I just paid my $2,000 dues last month. If I had known that, I would have kept it for my defense fund and not paid those clowns. I thought I would call them and see what they could do for me. Why am I paying them this $2,000 every year?
“Finally I get a call from Jeffrey Douglas,” Harb continues. “Obviously I knew who he was. He introduced himself. We started talking. He began giving me information and background on what to expect this and that regarding our case. I got the speech on what to look for. All fine and dandy. What can you do for me? Nothing.
“He told me this was not of mass interest. What do you mean? If I lose, that’s protocol for the rest of the business. Douglas was very evasive. Obviously he didn’t want to come out and say we ain’t doing shit for you. But he did it in attorney-talk.
“He did say we have a vested interest in your case. I was, like, how so? He said we’re representing JM and Five Star- another Internet company like myself. I said what can you do for me? He said we don’t handle these types of cases. We handle more along the lines of industry-type cases where it’s the industry as a whole. I’m, like, wait a minute my case, depending on the outcome, will make an impact on the industry. Then he does the song and dance and talks his way out of it. Then he said he had an conference call and he had to go. He said he’d call me back the next day and we’d go into it a little deeper. That was four days ago. Haven’t heard from him since and don’t expect to.”
Harb goes on to say that he’s a little guy running an Internet business.
“These people [the Feds] picked on me for absolutely no reason.”
“They’re flexing their muscles,” he continues. “They’re trying to charge us with selling movies from two studios that are already under indictment [Max Hardcore and Extreme Associates]. Now how can you charge me when their own material hasn’t even been deemed obscene yet? But yet you’re charging me with selling it?
“We feel that’s one of the reasons we were targeted,” Harb continues. “And also because we’re smaller, maybe we wouldn’t be putting up a big fight and they’d get a quick resolution or plea bargain for us and tell their bosses at the DOJ, look we did something. We’re good boys. Maybe that’s what they’re looking for- again, I don’t know. These are the things our attorneys are telling us.”
According to Harb, he was visited by the Feds, June 13.
“It was 14 or 15 FBI agents with a search warrant and a complaint,” he said. “Not even an indictment by the grand jury. Just a complaint. They came in and said they’re looking for three titles, two are from Max Hardcore and one from Extreme Associates. We looked in our inventory, two of the titles we didn’t have. One of the titles we just got in – it was a brand new release- and hadn’t even sold it yet. We had three copies and they pulled those three copies.
“Then they took all our paper and sales records for ’06,” Harb continues.
“And then they proceeded to copy all of our hard drives. About 20 machines. Then they handed me with a complaint letter and a summons to appear in court. That was it. They said have a nice day. Wasn’t that lovely.
“Now we’re talking to our attorneys- and I wonder who’s worse? The US government for doing this or the lawyers who are going to rape me.
“Fortunately and unfortunately for me I have one of the best First Amendment and obscenity trial attorneys in the country here- Michael Murray. He’s the number one guy. Sirkin, Cambria, Douglas, they all say this guy’s number one. He has some heavy hitter clients in the industry and goes back to the Reuben Sturman days.
“But I’m nowhere in the league of these people and this guy’s talking about sticking me for $250,000, with a $100,000 retainer within ten days. We’re looking at in excess of $350,000 plus expenses. And that’s just obscene. I thought you were innocent until proven guilty. Well, that’s not the case in this country. You’re guilty until you can prove yourself innocent and, unfortunately, that’s the reality in this case.”
Harb says he’s met with another attorney and is going with a different legal team.
“We just hired them- two great attorneys- one of them is my personal attorney. The guy’s got a lot of experience under his belt. Another guy is an obscenity guru. He worked for the Justice Department and was a US prosecutor for the DOJ for 17 years- only for obscenity cases. So he comes with a huge background in this stuff. This other team will charge us about half of what Murray was going to be charging, but that’s still a lot of money. We just don’t have it. It’s crazy.”
Harb, who buys product from about 600 studios, began asking for help around the industry.
“I said we need help- we do millions of dollars a year in purchases and we need your help. Believe it or not, a lot of studios stepped up. What’s funny is, the smaller studios I didn’t expect were the first ones to help. And that’s really amazing to me. And the big boys? They’re hiding.”
to be continued