Money Laundering In Budapest

7/23/01

XXX writes: "Most of the Italians shooting porno in Budapest, Hungary, are cleaning money when they shoot. Huge budgets. And that money is not being spent on talent and crew. Most of the money from the German peeps machines is channeled through Italian producers and a few of the larger German producers to make it clean."

I seek more information on these characters: Goldlight owner Claus Nussbaum, a German Jew from Hamburg, Spain's IFG International Film Group, Mario Salieri (very powerful, and rumoured to dangerous), Gian Franco Grimaldi and Ricardo Scatchi, two big Italian producer-directors shooting movies every month in Budapest for $200,000 plus.

"This Gian Franco Grimaldi is the Man about town here. He has all the clout, and brokers a lot of the big deals. When he came here in around 1992 he didn't have a pot to piss in," says a source. "Whenever these Italians shoot they make things difficult for smaller producers as they suck up so much of the best talent especially the wood for up to eight days at a time. They pay well to so guys like David Perry will flake on you even if you booked him first when the Italians are shooting.

"Yes Hungary is now on the list of countries, which are uncooperative in the fight against money laundering. Hungary is still a Cash community. Everything is still done with CASH. You can show up at the Airport with a suitcase full of money, Declare it and THEY will drive you to the bank. No questions asked.

"It's no wonder at all that this is the world's capital for the arrangement of the "Big budget" porn production. Nowhere else do so many big budget productins occur. America doesn't come close.

"American production companies have been caught sleeping over the opportunities Budapest can afford their moguls to clean their dirty or Black cash."

REUTERS 5/20/01: But director Nanni Moretti's success followed another triumph earlier in the week of fellow countryman and auteur Mario Salieri -- in the porn industry's annual Hot d'Or awards.

A veteran of the sector with some 100 titles to his credit as producer and 50 as writer-director, Salieri took the top award Thursday for ``Stavros,'' his erotic opus about a horny Greek tycoon who bears a more than passing resemblance to Aristotle Onassis.

Given the strict Italian laws regarding the production of pornographic material, Salieri, like most of his fellow directors in the thriving national erotica industry, now shoots primarily in France and Spain as well as Hungary and other parts of Central Europe.

Not one to shy away from ambitious, auteurial projects, Salieri is preparing to direct an X-rated version of the Faust legend.

GUCCI writes: Since over 10 years Salieri is a controversial director within the Italian porn industry. His movies are very misogynist but on the same time very intelligent and intellectual. In his movies he reflects the sources of todays cold, pornographic degradation of women and finds them within the structures of fascist and post-fascist Italian society. His movies are pornographic tragedies where every sexual action becomes a piece of the puzzle to reconstruct what’s wrong with society. And the excellent camera work is unseen in pornography: excellent lighting, no cam movements, rarely any close-ups – all in all: A very cold, analytical view of what’s going on.

His style is very influental: Not only his beautiful wife, Nicky Ranieri, is shooting her movies in the same style (and with the same, although not as "reflected”, misogynism) since ca. 10 years, also new directors such as Jenny Forte or Dino Toscani turn out to be true followers of his (in Italy and France) very successful style (also connecting pornography with topics such as catholicism and fascism). Even famous director Max Bellochio from time to time makes movies in typical Salieri-manner ("Guardare” being one of his latest). Nevertheless, most famous Italian porn actress of the Nineties, Selen, who was for years under exclusive contract with Salieri, dismissed her contract in ca. 1997, because she was tired of playing abused women all the time and without exception.

Salieri's budgets: Some of them are for sure very high. He’s got excellent lighting and he gets the best out of the acting abilities of porn actors and actresses. Sometimes his movies have more than 20 minutes of talking without interruption. More talking than f---ing. Plus: His movie "Inferno” (1999) for example must have cost quite a lot, because it involves over 40 famous European actresses (in a 90 min. movie) which all have their own scenes with practically no group scenes. One of his latest movies, "Divina” (2001), includes as many music pieces as f--- scenes, involves very well composed and produced music pieces sung by Zara Whites and a "nonsex” singer. The movie is said to have cost about $500,000 dollars (difficult for me to judge if there’s still a lot money for laundry). Plus, yeah: There’s always been rumours about Salieri having close connections to the Italian Mafia.

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Rame.net's Imperator reviews Memories of a Lifetime: "Salieri sometimes forgets that he's shooting a f--- film. He has his personal agenda in indicting the Mafia and corruption of Italian politics but, more frequently than not these plots are rambling and tiring. This movie is no exception; it's something like 35 minutes into the flick before the sex starts, and these 35 mins are not the best drama I've seen either."