Mantra Entertainment chief executive officer Joe Francis and three others were arrested April 2, after police received complaints that the Girls Gone Wild producers told underage actresses to say they were 18 on camera.
Police told the Associated Press they turned up videos to corroborate those complaints, videos that showed girls stripping and "acting out scenes on camera" despite the producers knowing the girls were underage. They said four 17-year-old girls and a 16-year-old came across a Girls Gone Wild van March 31 and were asked to do nude scenes at a motel room, which two of the girls agreed to do.
Francis and Mark Schmitz were charged with prostitution and sexual exploitation, the AP said, with Francis also facing a drug trafficking charge. The two other workers, unnamed at this time, were charged with drug possession.
Police seized a 2002 Ferrari, electronic equipment, waiver papers, and a safe with original footage of nude girls, the AP said.
Panama City Mayor Lee Sullivan and local law enforcement had threatened previously to make arrests if Girls Gone Wild crews tried shooting nude in or around the city's fabled spring-break beaches. Mantra Entertainment spokesman Bill Horn said the company would fight the charges.
