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What's Going On At Defiance Films? 8/9/06: I believe the company is putatively owned by Ron Levi's girlfriend -- Kristi Luhar who does the books for Cybererotica. She says she discovered theft by Keith O'Connor and Anthony Simone and booted them from Defiance. One accusation says that Keith and Anthony deposited checks from distributors into their personal accounts. There's a police investigation. I hear accusations of forgeries and money laundering. The whole mess is hurting Norman's relationship with Ron and Ron's relationship with his girlfriend, the Defiance Films bookkeeper who should've caught the theft months ago. Kristi's never done the books for a production company. I have tried and failed to get a comment from any of the principals in this case -- Norman Bentley, Ron Levi, Ron's girlfriend Kristi, Keith O'Connor and Anthony Simone. Defiance Films is a Nevada corporation (filed February 23, 2005). (AVN June 6, 2005.) (AVN April 13, 2005.)
I called Kristi Luhar Tuesday 8:30 a.m. at Defiance. "I have no comment," she said when I identified myself. "I have another call on hold." While some people hate Ron Levi, it seems that almost everybody likes Kristi Luhar. Ron has a reputation for treating his employees well (those that don't steal from him). He pays his bills. Levi's attorneys are communicating with Keith and Anthony and it appears that all sides are seeking a settlement. In January 2006, after Taylor Rain didn't win an AVN award (she believes that people at AVN had assured her she would win an award), her fiance Keith O'Connor sent AVN President Paul Fishbein a threatening email. Norman and company were appalled and Fishbein was sent elaborate apologies (from Keith and others at Defiance). Some trace the beginning of a split between Norman and Keith to that event. Over the past few months, Norman and company at Defiance became convinced that Keith and Anthony were stealing from the company. Norman and company investigated and found things that didn't look right. They became convinced that Keith O'Connor was forging signature and depositing checks into his personal account that were made out to vendors. If Keith and Anthony would speak publicly, they'd talk about being out of pocket $30,000 to pay bills for Defiance (through Torrid, funded by Jerry at Mallcom.com) that Defiance was taking its time to pick up. Defiance and Torrid, two separate companies but both run by Keith and Anthony, made a lot of movies with the same cast within a day or two of each other. It's hard to unscramble where the money went. A source says: "I know of one company who was recently offered by Keith O'Connor [the opportunity] to purchase Defiance. The asking price was $700,000. The company respectfully declined amidst a few in-house chuckles and chortles." Another source tells me:
Anthony and Keith were pushed out of Defiance July 19. I met Norman Bentley July 5, 2005 at Porn Star Karaoke. He told me that he was a principal owner in Defiance along with Keith O'Connor and Anthony Simone and that the company was bankrolled by Ron Levi who had invested $400,000. Keith presided over production, the web and marketing. Anthony ran sales. I'm not sure what Norman did aside from brokering the partnership between Ron and Keith and Anthony. Norman was busy with his divorce and Matrix. And Ron Levi was rarely around. Ron was the silent partner. He gave Norman a full partnership share in Defiance. Ron's girlfriend came in to Defiance a couple of times a week. Ron and Norman have done business since 1999. Norman gave Ron first-use on Matrix Content (the company was started by Jon Berg and a relative, and then Mark Steyn and Norman and his wife Robbye Bentley and several other partners took over, though by now Norman has taken control and it is just Norman's company, and a silent partner, and presumably Ron Levi). I believe that Defiance was conceived by Keith and Anthony while they were at Metro. I believe Defiancefilms.com was registered in February while Keith was still working at Metro. Keith came up with the name of the company, the logo, and the business plan. Anthony moved to L.A. from Rhode Island to start the company. Norman Bentley introduced Keith and Anthony to Ron Levi who agreed to fund the company. Defiance Films started in March 2005. In June 2005, Norman and Matrix Content were hit by a lawsuit from Kenneth Guarino and Metro because Norman was under contract to deliver movies to Metro. Norman had been in AVN and XBiz giving interviews saying that he was a partner in Defiance, precipitating Metro's lawsuit. As soon as that happened, Ron Levi called a meeting and said to Norman, Keith and Anthony, "Don't call yourselves partners anymore. You are all just employees. The company is in Kristi Luhar's name. That way Metro has nobody to go after." Keith and Anthony never got anything on paper from Ron or from Defiance stating their position with the company. Norman can be a cocky guy. He sent Kenny Guarino a text message, "Bring it on. I hope you have a forgiving wife." Norman was saying that Kenny cheats on his wife. Guarino wrote back: "Are you crazy? Instead of trying to settle this, you're threatening me?" That's why Kenny hates Norman and will pursue him to the end of the earth. In September 2005, Norman, Anthony Simone were hit by another lawsuit from Metro. Ron Levi paid the legal bills of Norman and Anthony, including for Anthony's girlfriend Kelly Erikson, the former Metro contract star. Norman goes through a big divorce with Robbye Bentley. Ron Levi essentially funded Norman's divorce, and bought Robbye out of Matrix. During this process, Norman ran Matrix into the ground to devalue it so he wouldn't have to pay Robbye as much. Norman didn't care for some things I published from Robbye and he told people he was going to hire someone to beat me up. That never happened. In March 2006, Norman hit Robbye with a restraining order to prevent her from "public harassment" and from contacting him or his girlfriend Jackie. Around this time, Defiance employee Gustavo (formerly of Metro) was arrested at a bank trying to cash a check Defiance's accountant Ken Meyer. Gustavo had to serve time in prison, where he may still reside. The same week Gustavo got busted, a check for Matrix Content got endorsed by Keith O'Connor and deposited into his personal account. Kristi Luhar was then warned about Keith and told that O'Connor had someone at the bank helping him deposit such checks at Bank of America. Kristi didn't pay the matter much attention. But Norman became concerned and found checks made out to random vendors, the art department, models, etc, endorsed and deposited by Keith. Anthony had a private bank account where he too deposited such money. Norman wondered why Defiance was spending $45,000 to make a gonzo film. Almost from its inception, Keith and Anthony had been paying some Defiance bills out of their own monies and then when Defiance finally paid a bill, Keith or Anthony would deposit the check into their own account. Skeeter Kerkove shot some scenes for Defiance with Defiance money. Kristi Luhar and company became convinced that a Torrid movie came out of that. Soon after, Kristi Luhar, Norman Bentley and other began suspecting that Keith and Anthony were misappropriating Defiance funds. Norman had separate confrontations about it with Keith and Anthony (in June, July). At one point, there were even tears. The line between what was for Defiance and what was for Torrid became blurred. Kristi and Norman are still trying to figure that out. Kristi became convinced that over $10,000 in checks for Paola Rey (not a U.S. citizen) ended up in Keith's personal bank account. Keith's former partner from the North-East, Gene Masto (sp?), worked on every one of Defiance's titles. Kristi and Norman are still trying to figure out what Gene did for his $1,500 a movie. Kristi believes that Taylor Rain got paid for movies she does not appear in. Kristi, Norman, Ron and company are sure that they are right, that they were stolen from, but they are waiting for the police to announce that there's been theft. Ron Levi's got so many corporations, he can play a shell game for miles so that nothing ever traces back to him. He went through a difficult divorce and his ex-wife wants his more of his assets (even though she took a settlement of millions of dollars). In defense, according to Defiance sources, Ron has filed court papers claiming a substantially smaller amount of assets and income than his ex-wife claims he has. Bringing up his divorce and his need to protect his income and assets, Ron has reamed Keith, Anthony and Norman for telling people that Levi was funding Defiance. I believe that the net worth of all of Levi's 20 or so cars would be about $2 million. About six weeks ago, Ron meets with Kenny to try to settle the lawsuit. On the first day of arbitration, Kenny does not even show up. The second day, Kenny showed up, but he didn't focus. All Kenny wanted to talk about was Norman. Kenny wants money for Norman's breach of contract. Kenny wouldn't settle. Kenny did not even want to talk to Norman. Ron came back and sat down with Norman, Keith and Anthony and said, "I don't want to fight this guy. I don't want another million dollars in legal bills." It sounded like Levi was going to bankrupt Defiance so Kenny wouldn't have anyone to sue. That Kenny would learn that Keith and Anthony were no longer with Defiance and that Norman was no longer with the company, so Kenny should drop the lawsuit. In all the court documents Defiance has issued for the Guarino vs. Bentley lawsuit, Defiance has said that Kristi Luhair owns Defiance. Keith and Anthony have numerous emails from Norman Bentley detailing the breakdown of the company and Ron Levi's role in Defiance. Over the past six weeks, many porners were called by Defiance and asked if they were paid for all their Defiance shoots. Some porners say they were encouraged to say they had not been paid and that they'd sign a declaration to the effect. Until February 2006, Keith and Anthony would run Torrid Entertainment (owned by Anthony Simone and Jerry Aharony from Mallcom with Keith as the head of production) and Defiance Films out of the same office even though they are separate companies. Torrid had a distribution deal with Defiance. Defiance got 25% of Torrid's gross in exchange for handling all advertising, post-production, and shipping the product. After Kenny Guarino's lawsuit against Norman, Defiance began to take its time paying people (up to three weeks). If the wait was going to be a week or more, Anthony and Keith would start paying people through Torrid. Then, when Defiance finally cut the checks, Keith and Anthony would reimburse Torrid. Since April 2005, Keith paid out of his own pocket over $70,000 for webmaster and 2257 work for Defiance. Kirsty did not want any of these expenses to go through Cybererotica so Metro couldn't establish any relationship between Cybererotica and Defiance. Anthony Simone kicked in another $30,000 for these expenses. Sources unfriendly to Keith and Anthony say the two men stole from Defiance. Sources friendly to Keith and Anthony say Defiance stole from them. That Defiance endorsed over 100 checks made out to Torrid and put them in Defiance's account. Ron Levi had lawyers sitting in on every major Defiance meeting. The Kenny Guarino lawsuit has cost Norman Bentley's side about $200,000. Norman and his fiance now run Defiance (after being MIA at the company for its first 15 months). Matrix (owned by Norman and Ron Levi) will provide all the movies for Defiance. Defiance started as a gonzo company. Then a year ago, Norman Bentley shot the feature movie Runway for $90,000 over objections from Anthony and Keith. It's not finished yet and has not sold. As I understand it, Defiance has no debt. It has $250,000 in receivables and $200,000 in inventory and $175,000 in unreleased masters. So theoretically, Keith and Anthony own half of a $600,000 company. Anthony and Keith packed every box and shipped every piece of Defiance product. "The only time Norman showed up was when AVN came over for an interview," says a Defiance source. "If there was any press, Norman was there talking himself up." In an interview in AVN June 1, Norman talks about his work at Matrix and Defiance. I believe that when Matrix shoots, Cybererotica gets to look at the content, pick what it wants, and then gets exclusivity on that content for six months. "Norman was not the founder of Matrix," says a source. "Norman and Robbye were brought into Matrix because of Robbye. Then Norman said, 'I shoot video. My daddy has a lot of money. I have a trust fund through a cosmetic company.' Norman got a loan from his father. He and Robbye became partners in Matrix. Then Norman kicked out the founder of the company and got rid of the other partners and Robbye. The only people left at Matrix and Ron and Norman. The same thing with Defiance. Anthony and Keith started the company but Norman's the one left with the company." Keith and Anthony still control the website www.defiancefilms.com. It's not clear whether Defiance is headed for bankruptcy. Ron Levi is cursing the whole situation and dealing with his feelings through mammoth games of poker. Keith O'Connor's (Defiance Films) Past LAguy writes March 15, 2006:
Keith responds to my inquiry: "It's correct. Was related to something that occured in 1993 with a federal case. I plead guilty to the federal offense in 1998 and in connection plead guilty in a state case. Had no relation to the adult business, was computer related and a lifetime ago." Keith apparently served time in prison -- from June 19, 2000 to January 3, 2001. |
