FBI assistant director of criminal investigations Chip Burrus held a press conference where he told reporters that the inspections have been carried out in a business-like manner.
“[Pornographers] expected guns and battering rams, and we came in with suits and pencils,” Burrus said.
Results from the inspections are still in the preliminary stages, according to Burrus, who added that producers have been compliant so far.
In the same UPI report amateur gay content producer JJ Ruch, who owns Bethlehem, Pa.-based Sebastian Sloane Productions, is quoted as saying in an email that he plans to quit the adult entertainment business.
Ruch told XBIZ that while the thought had crossed his mind, he had taken no action to sell his company or leave the business, although he is concerned in light of a recent search of his home office by authorities executing a search warrant to retrieve evidence of depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit acts.
“It’s scary to think that if I have one screw up with my records, I could go to jail for five years,” Ruch said.
The July 28 investigation of Sebastian Sloane Productions came on the heels of an FBI visit to the Chatsworth, Calif., office of Diabolic Video July 23 to inspect that company’s 2257 records. Since that time, one other company, Chatsworth, Calif.-based Robert Hill Releasing, has reported an inspection of its 2257 records. That inspection occurred Aug. 1.
The UPI story reports only two adult entertainment industry 2257 inspections. An adult entertainment industry attorney has told XBIZ that the inspection of Ruch’s office was not technically a 2257 inspection because it involved a search warrant, whereas inspections of Robert Hill Releasing and Diabolic were each conducted without a warrant.