When I began writing about nine years ago what sinister forces were lurking within this biz, no one seemed to believe or care.

Mike South writes: It’s pretty well known that AVN has been bought out, even though the announcement has not been made. Speculation is rampant that Manwin/Brazzers money is what bought it.

I have worked my sources hard and have researched this from every angle including asking Paul Fishbein directly.

I can find no evidence that Manwin or Brazzers has any part in the purchase

But the question remains, why all the secrecy to hide the owners/purchasers?

Theo Sapoutzis and Vasilis Kailis supposedly raised “venture capital” about a year ago and bought their way onto the board of directors but there’s no trace of where the venture capital came from (most rumors say Gamelink, something Gamelink denies)

Vasilis owns a shell corp that specializes in setting up shell corps in Cyprus, there are genrally only two reasons to set up shell corps in Cyprus…One is to avoid taxes the other is to hide ownerships. You can pretty well bet AVN posted a pretty good loss last year.

Vasilis Kailis may indeed be just a figure, as one of my sources put it:

“He is clearly involved in setting up corporate structures and using his name as a director nominee for those structures. That only means someone does not want to be found. Be it for tax purposes or otherwise, you don’t use a nominee unless you are trying to hide something or from something.

Just like when many companies who use shell corps list the generic corp address as their 2257 address and the nominee for the custodian of records, it’s all BS. ”

He further notes:

“For those who spend advertising dollars with AVN month after month, it would be very important to know if you’re now giving money to the same company who has been ripping you off this whole time.

The questions are very relevant (as well as simple) and the fact that a real answer has yet to be given.

One can only take away from all of this secrecy that this is how AVN wants to treat their advertisers. I guess AVN has forgotten once again who keeps their lights on. However, one look at how embarrassingly thin the publication has become tells you everything you need to know about the future of the publication and how desperate it is for a cash injection by anyone who is willing to throw money at it.”

I will post more as I learn it.