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A grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday charging "Girls Gone Wild" producer Joe Francis with theft and fraud over his failure to pay the Wynn Las Vegas a $2 million gambling debt.
The charges in the two-count indictment are the same as those contained in a felony complaint the district attorney's office filed against Francis in Las Vegas Justice Court in September 2008.
The indictment allows the district attorney's office to dismiss the old complaint and move the case to District Court for trial. A Feb. 16 arraignment before District Judge Linda Bell was set for Francis, who is free on $132,500 bail.
The indictment alleges Francis intended to defraud the Wynn by signing a $2.5 million marker on a closed bank account during a gambling junket in February 2007.
Francis, 37, who amassed a fortune producing videos of drunken college girls taking off their clothes, contended he owed the Strip resort considerably less than $2 million.
He counter-sued Wynn, alleging chairman Steve Wynn used a variety of tactics to run up his gambling losses, including supplying him with prostitutes.
Wynn issued a statement calling the allegations "scurrilous beyond imagination" and filed a defamation lawsuit.
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