A wealthy telecom executive who paid $500,000 in blackmail to a porn film actor will get most of his money back, according to a forfeiture order approved Thursday in Los Angeles.
Prosecutors said they managed to locate nearly $447,000 in Teo Brank’s bank accounts directly traceable to the $500,000 wire he received from the victim, Donald Burns.
U.S. District Judge John Walter granted the government’s forfeiture order for the full amount, finding that the money seizure represents the proceeds of Brank’s crime and should be returned to Burns.
Brank’s defense attorney did not oppose the order.
The judge said he would order restitution at Brank’s sentencing hearing, which is expected in October, noting that about $53,000 is still outstanding.
Clothed in white jail garb and sporting a growth of beard he didn’t have during last week’s three-day trial, Brank said nothing during the brief hearing.
Brank — who performed under the name Jarec Wentworth in adult films and on gay porn sites — was found guilty by a jury July 9 of extortion and related counts stemming from a $1.5 million blackmail attempt on the Florida tycoon and political donor.
Burns handed over $500,000 in cash and a luxury car worth nearly $180,000 so Brank wouldn’t reveal on social media the details of the executive’s paid sexual liaisons with the defendant and other X-rated performers.
Brank, 25, was arrested in March in an FBI sting after an agent posing as Burns’ associate met with the porn performer at a Starbucks in El Segundo and handed over title to an Audi R8 and discussed a $1 million funds transfer.
Weeks earlier, Burns had wired Brank $500,000 and given him the Audi after the male escort threatened to “bring your house down” by posting on Twitter details of the multimillionaire’s paid sexual encounters, according to evidence presented at trial.
Burns, who is the partial owner of the Internet phone company Magicjack and controls the Donald A. Burns Foundation, testified that he paid men for sex to avoid emotional entanglements.
Prosecutors said Brank had a two-year relationship with Burns in which the executive paid him $2,000 per sexual encounter, then asked the actor to introduce him to other male escorts, offering Brank a $2,000 “referral” for each introduction, and more if he joined in.
The defense maintained that Burns “groomed and mentored” Brank, offering to help him begin a modeling career away from porn but then reneged on the promise and broke off their friendship.
At that point, Brank threatened to use Twitter to expose the executive’s predilection for “sex for pay,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Eddie Jauregui told jurors.
Burns “panicked,” Jauregui said, and when Brank demanded $500,000 and the Audi to keep quiet, the businessman complied, transferring the money to Brank’s bank account and delivering the car.
“I’m just going to bite hard,” Brank wrote in a text message that was introduced at trial. “I want a new car, motorcycle and both hands full of cash.”
Jauregui said that two weeks later, Brank upped the ante, ordering Burns to hand over $1 million and the Audi’s certificate of title.
At that point, Burns went to the FBI, and Brank was arrested in the Starbucks sting as the Palm Beach-based executive watched on a live video feed at the FBI’s Westwood offices.
Defense attorney Seema Ahmad insisted that Brank never threatened Burns’ reputation because the executive made no secret of his private life and there was nothing to expose.
Instead, Brank merely wanted to tell his Twitter followers “what happened to him” at the hands of Burns.
“He wanted what was promised him,” Ahmad told jurors.
The defense attorney said Burns paid Brank not because he was worried about his reputation, but because he truly owed Brank the money and car for services rendered.
Burns’ “reputation was never threatened,” Ahmad said, adding that Brank “only asked for the money he deserved.”
Brank lived most recently in Sacramento prior to his arrest.
— Wire reports