Insider Video Club
Insider Video Club (aka IVC) was a company which was part of Award Films International which sold award winning international videos and DVDs beginning in the early 1980's until around 2006. In 2006, the company was raided and its owner arrested after allegations that he was distributing child pornography. His customer list was seized. Beginning in 2009, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service initiated an undercover operation targeting the former customers of the Insider Video Club mailing them fictitious company flyers offering a catalogs of actual child pornography movies which differed from the foreign films and naturist material IVC had previously been selling.[1] A number of individuals were duped in to ordering child pornographic material likely believing that it was the same type of foreign films and naturist films which IVC had historically offered and were subsequently arrested, imprisoned and forced to register as sex offenders.
History
The history of Insider Video Club/ Award Films International / IVB, Inc goes back to the early 1980’s, when VHS tapes started to be introduced into the market. At first the company mainly sold VHS tapes of “Coming Of Age Films” such as:
| Films titles |
|---|
| Chronicle of a Boy Alone |
| YOU ARE NOT ALONE |
| Tom and Lola |
| Robby |
| The Genesis Children |
| Acla's Descent Into Floristella |
| THE CHIPPENDIDDYS |
| CISKE THE RAT |
| Body By Garret |
| Vito & The Others |
| The Flavor Of Corn |
| The Annunciation |
These were feature length films, that had brief incidents of nudity, but was not the central theme of the movie itself. They were marketed in the back of many Gay Magazines and Video Guides at the time.
IVC was based out of two known addresses:
5220 Santa Monica Blvd Ste 210, Los Angeles, CA 90029
and
PO Box 93399, Los Angeles, CA 90093-0399
Initially the tapes sold for between $59-$79 a tape, due to the limited market of VHS sales at the time. They also carried CD’s, magazines, photo books, and “softcore” versions of many adult films. The company published a monthly newsletter called “Arcade” that they used to advertise these products.
In the late 1990’s , the company started to offer youth sports documentaries from Russia and the Ukraine that focused on Wrestling, Boxing, Karate, and so forth. These titles were shot on video, and featured extensive nudity, but no genital focus for it to be declared child pornography. These titles were sold between $49-$59 a tape.
In early 2004, IVC started selling “Naturist” titles featuring all male footage of nudist camps, beaches, gyms, etc. The participants that appeared in them were all ages, and again, no sexual content. These films were titled:
| Naturist films titles |
|---|
| Helios Natura |
| Bare Buns and Boxing |
| After-School Break |
| Czech Freedom I |
| Under Palms at the Ocean |
| The Dalmatian |
| Fun on the Pier |
| Skinny Dippin’ Boys |
| Colorful Life on the Adriatic |
These titles were on average 60 minutes long, were on DVD and VHS, and sold for $59.95 each plus shipping. The company had a website from the late 1990’s - awardfilms.com, but did not sell the nudist titles on them for fear of legal issues.
Trouble In Nudist Land
In 2005 a site called moviebizz.com was launched in Canada by a man called Brian Way. Initially moviebizz /4p5p were “resellers” of IVC’s products in the cyber world.
The marriage was short lived.
Each side was accusing the other of bootlegging each others products. This nasty battle was well documented in the US Patent office.[3] Brian’s mother Sandra Waslov was acting as agent for the company during this time period between 2005-20012. Both sides were very aggressive about defending the trademark worth quite a bit of money in an untapped market. The lawsuit was “DISMISSED W/ PREJUDICE” in 2012.
2006 IVC Raid
In 2005, while investigating a separate Child Porn case, the US Postal Inspection Service, a once major player in the fight against Child Porn, stumbled upon some of the titles that IVC was selling. An investigation, Operation Insider was initiated. (See http://www.justice.gov/psc/docs/natstrategyreport.pdf. Page A-4) In December 2006, U.S. Postal Inspectors executed search warrants at a commercial video club. This business conducted direct mail operations that sold DVDs, videotapes, and still photographs of adult pornography, naturist films often featuring teenaged boys. The company’s computer database of past and current customers, including customers’ order histories, was seized, searched, and analyzed. The USPIS, in a coordinated effort with DOJ/CEOS, conducted a proactive undercover mail operation, purporting to be the same business, targeting former customers who purchased the greatest amounts of naturist material from 2002 through 2006; however, many of the suspects had ordered material from the video club long before that period. As part of the undercover operation, the law enforcement officers mailed advertisements from a fictitious company that offered to sell child pornography DVDs.[1] After a suspect responded to the inquiry, law enforcement agents would conduct controlled deliveries of purchased items and execute search warrants. The searches allegedly resulted in large seizures of child pornography, computers and peripherals used to collect and distribute child pornography, and, the identification of child victims.
However, in 2009, the owner of IVC, David Eisenlohr, was ACQUITTED in Los Angeles court of selling anything illegal or improper, but not before having his business ruined, and having his mailing list used for the purposes of entrapment.[4]
The rest is history. Azov’s filmmaker Markus Roth was arrested in 2010, and Azov Films was raided in May, 2011.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Child porn sting leads to Lewiston man's arrest. Portland Press Herald. Retrieved on 2014-06-3.
- ↑ Web Archive.org
- ↑ http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?qt=adv&procstatus=All&pno=91179951&propno=&qs=&propnameop=&propname=&pop=&pn=&pop2=&pn2=&cop=&cn=
- ↑ Insider Video Club and Azov Films (BoyChat)
See also
External links
- https://web.archive.org/web/20041130195329/http://www.awardfilms.com/ Web archive of Award films website
