HOUSTON – Adult business owner Andrew Inglet was arrested and indicted on tax evasion charges last week. According to a recent report, the three-count indictment alleges that Inglet — who owns East Bay Inc. — underreported his income as well as the wages of some of his employees.
Prosecutors claim that Inglet reported $134,112 of an estimated $1.25 million income in 2002.
East Bay operates eight adult-oriented stores in Texas.
Curiously, according to the Houston Chronicle, the name of another Texas adult business owner, John A. Coil, appears on East Bay's public franchise tax report for 2007, not Inglet’s. On that form, Coil is also listed as the company's president.
Father and son John K. and John A. Coil, who owned a chain of 27 sexually-oriented businesses in Texas, were indicted on tax evasion and obscenity charges in 2003. Their network of stores was seized by the government and shut down. John K. Coil was sentenced to 63 months in prison on both charges and his son received probation.
Prosecutors speculated that Inglet was trying to get rid of the businesses to avoid the impending charges.
Obscenity allegations are historically easier to prosecute when they are coupled with more concrete charges, such as tax evasion. As the report points out, tax charges have been used against other adult industry heads including Goalie Entertainment owner Edward Wedelstedt.
“I think these investigations are a reflection of an assault on the industry,” Luke Lirot, a Florida attorney who represents numerous businesses and individuals in the adult industry, told the Houston Chronicle. “I think this is President Bush paying back some of his political capital from the Christian right.”
