The founder of the smutty Girls Gone Wild videos will remain behind bars as he awaits a trial for tax evasion charges in the US after he channelled millions through a Bermuda bank account.

The 34-year-old video empire founder hoped to be released from a Nevada jail as he awaited his trial in August, but yesterday US District Judge Brian Sandoval denied his bail application, the Associated Press reported.

Mr. Francis has made millions selling videos of often intoxicated young women exposing themselves.

It is alleged that he deducted more than $20 million in false business expenses on corporate income tax returns filed in 2002 and 2003.

The indictment document alleges that Mr. Francis's companies Mantra Films Inc. and Sands Media Inc. used offshore companies and nominee bank accounts — including one at the Bermuda Commercial Bank — to conceal some of the earnings.

It shows that more than $15 million was moved from the BCB account to a brokerage account in Irvine, California during 2002.

The document states that Mr. Francis set up a Cayman Islands company called Rothwell Ltd., which in November 2001 set up an account at BCB. It is alleged that Mr. Francis used "nominee signatories to conceal his beneficial ownership of this bank account".

If convicted of the federal charges, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.

But his legal woes will not be over if he is found innocent.

In Florida Mr. Francis has also been charged with using and conspiring to use minors in a sexual performance in 2003 — stemming from allegations he filmed underage girls stripping for his cameras — and smuggling prescription medication into a Florida Jail in 2003.