A 64-year-old man who took over his friend’s adult video mail order business to pay off $50,000 in credit card debt was indicted on federal obscenity charges last week, after allegedly making over $400,000 shipping obscene videos to customers.
Now Thomas Lambert faces losing everything he has – including both his liberty and his property, in what may become the first federal obscenity case to be tried in Montana.
Last week another federal obscenity case in Montana, the first ever, ended with a guilty plea the same day the indictment was passed down.
Lambert was indicted by a grand jury for selling rape, bestiality, torture, pissing, and defecation videos to a proprietary list of customers via a mail order catalog. Master Keith, Anything Goes, Dick Torture, and Ur-A-Peen are among the titles found obscene.
Specifically, Lambert faces charges of conspiracy, transportation of obscene materials, and money laundering.
"It’s not the thing that I’m necessarily into, but it was an opportunity for me to make some money so that’s what I did," Lambert told AVN.com. "It’s none of my business what people are up to and it’s not the government’s business either. There are people out there doing all sorts of things and it’s not for me to judge them at all.’"
Lambert pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on his own recognizance with conditions. His partner and co-defendant Sanford Wasserman will be arraigned next month.
Lambert distributed his catalogs using the following business names: Pet Tec, the PT Company, Digital Technology, New Technology, Brightstar, LeMons, Mount Venus and Princeton.
Federal agents, in conjunction with United States postal inspectors, observed Lambert from October 27, 1998 through December 10, 2002, purchasing a number of tapes from his catalogs.
The federal government is attempting to take Lambert’s house under forfeiture laws, even though Lambert finished paying for it in 1992, well before he became involved in the mail order business.
Lambert was given his business by a friend, who had turned over his tape masters and his list of customers to Lambert when forced to quit the business himself as a part of a plea bargain.
Lambert notes that while comparable material may not be easy to find in stores, it's virtually everywhere on the Internet.
