Girls Gone Wild creator, Joe Francis, ordered to pay $20 million for slander

Casino heavyweight Steve Wynn was awarded $20 million dollars on Monday after a jury found Girls Gone Wild creator, Joe Francis, guilty of slander. While Francis claimed Wynn threatened to kill him, Wynn successfully defended his name in court.

According to ABC News, Francis claimed that Wynn threatened to hit him in the head with a shovel and bury him in the desert. The cause of this argument? A $2 million dollar gambling debt that Francis owes Wynn.

Wynn always claimed that Francis' statement was false. The billionaire CEO of Wynn Resorts, who also owns the famed Las Vegas Casinos such as The Mirage and the Bellagio, seemed more angered over the claims to his reputation rather than the money. Wynn had already pledged to donate his winnings to Charity, minus legal fees, on Friday, while the trial was still underway.

"He committed character assassination," Wynn's attorney, Barry Langberg, said. "He did it for a simple reason, he didn't want to pay his debt."

While neither Francis nor Wynn were present at the verdict hearing today, Francis says he expects the verdict to be overturned due to a judicial error claim which his legal team has already begun.

"California law is very clear. You can't add a cause of action at the end of trial about something that had nothing to do with the trial," Francis said. "Therefore we are 100 percent confident this jury verdict will be reversed on appeal."

While Francis and his legal team may be confident about the judicial process, they cannot be as confident with the claim. According to NY Daily, the origin of the claim came from Francis' neighbor, Grammy winner, Quincy Jones. Allegedly, Jones called Francis to warn him, saying that Wynn threatened him. However according to ABC, Jones denied hearing Wynn say any threats when he took the stand to testify as a witness.