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Fox Business News reporter Charlie Gasparino reported last week that Manwin has some Wall Street guardian angels, namely Colbeck and The Fortress Investment Group that have been active in securing a $167M loan for them. www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=57885
Manwin apparently didn’t take too kindly to the fact that Gasparino also linked them to a porn piracy scandal which Gasparino said could have serious ramifications since Wall St. companies are in bed with them.
In a follow up report Gasparino noted that Manwin might be the most controversial company in the porn industry which is putting it mildly.
Gasparino said his involvement in the story got so when a Wall St. trader tipped him off to the Manwin loan.
“He told me about how Wall St. firms are financing Manwin’s operations.”
“The problem with Manwin,” said Gasparino, “is they’ve been cited for pirating porn. They operate something called YouPorn and these aggregator sites allegedly pirate legitimate content from other users and get it on their sites illegally. At least that’s the charge.
“We should point out that Manwin has called Fox Business last week after doing our story, denying that they do anything illegal. They say basically what they use they’ve gotten it through fair, honest and licensed agreements.”
Gasparino said he’d been talking to various porn reps over the weekend. From those talks, Gasparino got the impression that Manwin “forces” the end user to agree to a “cheap-o” licensing term.
“They force the players to deal with them, essentially, lending their videos at a cut rate fee.
“Anyway you put it, this Fabian Thylmann is the head of Manwin; apparently he’s under house arrest right now for tax evasion. This is a very controversial company. We have calls into Manwin for further comment.”
Gasparino said what makes this a story is the fact that Wall St. is involved with Manwin.
“Colbeck Capital affiliated with Goldman Sachs, former Goldman Sachs guys working there, they provided Manwin with $168M. That loan was syndicated out so other Wall St. firms bought a piece of this. Fortess Capital, the big hedge fund is part of that syndication.”
“Manwin says there’s nothing illegal. I can tell you I was bombarded over the weekend with emails and twitter messages with what people believe is illegal and cut throat business practices. If they do stuff legally that’s great.
“If they don’t, these Wall St. firms like Colbeck and Fortess should know they’re financing something that’s not above board. This is licensed material. If you take it and use it and put it up on your site without their permission that’s stealing. Look on YouTube. You see it all the time. It violates term of use.”
Unlike NBC which Gasparino points out is a watch dog over aggregator sites with their legal teams, porn proprietors don’t know to search every site.
“It’s a pretty controversial story.”