MANHATTAN - Robert Guccione, the founder of Penthouse magazine, has sued the Penthouse Media Group and its officers in New York County Court, claiming they drove his porn empire into bankruptcy, shoveled money into their own pockets while doing so, and refuse to pay him severance money they owe him.
Guccione claims that rather than reorganize his financially troubled General Media International, he allowed the defendants to take it over and reorganize, on the promise they would let him keep his townhouse, pay him $1 million a year for 25 years, and pay him $15 million if they failed to perform. But they snookered him, he says, refused to pay up once they had control of the new company, and owe him $7.5 million plus legal fees, so far. Guccione claims defendants Charles Samel, a former employee, and Jason Galanis, a consultant, drove his company into bankruptcy and defrauded him; that defendants Marc Bell [pictured] and Daniel Staton acquired Penthouse Media Group out of bankruptcy and refuse to pay Guccione money owed; and that defendant Luis Enrique Molina Galeana aided and abetted the alleged frauds, using the defendant corporations, Penthouse International Inc. and Internet Billing Co., to do so. The 37-page complaints describes the considerable debts Guccione and his companies had run up before he ceded control of his "empire," including "a $50 million art loan that was in default," and his townhouse, also in default. Guccione is represented by Jamie Brickell with Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn.
