Palin Porno Spoof Producer Tricked Hedge Funds, Says Suit
NEW YORK (CBS) Here's a switch: a dozen hedge funds are accusing a California businessman of "playing dirty" with their money — and even the name Sarah Palin is a "player" in the defendant's prior ventures, according to the New York Daily News.
The suit alleges Milton Ault the 3rd stiffed the hedge funds out of their $4.2 million investment in Ault's firm, Zealous Inc., by shoveling the money into porn, including a publicly traded gentleman's club and a planned swingers ranch in New York's Catskill Mountains, according to the paper.
Though not mentioned in the lawsuit, another Ault venture, Adult Capital Entertainment, Inc., appears to have co-produced a skin-flick based on then-Alaska governor and VP candidate Sarah Palin. That's according to the website of Rock Candy Entertainment, yet another firm under the Adult Capital banner.
In the film, entitled "Palin: Erection 2008," the Palin character, played by actress Raquel Devine, shares a bed with actors playing the parts of Barack and Michelle Obama, John and Cindy McCain and even Joe the Plumber.
The hedge funds' lawsuit says of their investment in Zealous, Inc., that "the financing was a scam," according to the newspaper. Published reports say the suit claims that Ault "intended to, and did, use plaintiffs' money to fund [his] lifestyle, which included the development of a 'swingers ranch' in the Catskills and other pornographic-related endeavors."
Ault told the New York Daily News that the suit was "worthless" and that the swinger ranch plans were a "joke."
"We were subdividing it into eight lots," Ault told the paper. "There was never going to be a swingers club."
Maybe not, but last September, Ault merged Zealous, Inc. into Adult Entertainment Capital, Inc., a publicly traded firm that issued a press release at that time mentioning plans for a 140-acre East Coast project for the "fast-growing swingers lifestyle."
Ault told the Daily News and the New York Post that the plaintiffs' investment was always earmarked for the creation of a platform for the trading of securities and was kept separate from his adult entertainment company. He also blamed the loss of their money on the collapse of the stock market.
More at the New York Daily News.