From the Gene Files: Did TV show host Jerry Springer pay a sizeable amount of cash to make a sex tape featuring him and porn star Kendra Jade in a Chicago hotel room disappear? Ex-business partners of John T. Bone seem to think that Springer paid Bone between $150,000 to $400,000 hush money to make an imminent scandal go away.

Charley Frey, a Florida dance agent, and former partner in Cream Productions, has lashed out against Bone, claiming that Bone owes him money from Springer’s taped affair with Jade, a “fucking fruitloop,” in Frey’s words. Frey is basing his knowledge of the Springer money according to comments Jade is supposed to have made when she was on the outs with Bone last November. Jade said, at the time, there was $400,000 paid to Bone. Jade has since recanted those statements about there being Springer hush money.

Frey: “It’s all bullshit. She told the truth the first time. We all know what the truth is. We all know that everything she said is true. She told me that’s where the money came from. It’s all irrelevant. What’s relevant is that the guy [Bone] has robbed from everybody. He’s lied to everybody.”

Frey makes no bones about wanting his share of the Springer booty, even though he says he was adamantly opposed to the so-called set-up that allegedly drew Springer to a hotel room. “I took the risk. I’m entitled to a piece of the profits,” says Frey. “That’s pragmatic. That’s business.”