New Fraud Complaint Means More Trouble For ‘Porn Troll’ Lawyer

"Porn troll” lawyer Paul Hansmeier is already facing up to 14 years behind bars after pleading guilty in August to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, as AVN.com reported.  But on Wednesday, Hansmeier faced even more trouble when a legal profession disciplinary body in Minnesota, Hansmeier’s home state, slapped him with a fraud complaint. Starting in 2010, according to the legal news site Minnesota Lawyer, Hansmeier, 37, and his law firm, Steele Hansmeier PLLC, initiated a scheme in which they obtained the copyrights to various porn films, then filed lawsuits against individuals who downloaded the porn clips from torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay. The scheme began with Hansmeier and his cronies simply monitoring torrent sites to catch downloads of the copyrighted videos, then filing “John Doe” lawsuits so that they could talk judges into issuing subpoenas allowing the lawyers to track the downloaders through their IP addresses. But Hansmeier and his collaborators soon graduated to uploading the porn clips to which they owned copyrights themselves, then waiting for them to be downloaded. At that point, Hansmeier would contact the unsuspecting porn fans demanding a “settlement,” usually $3,000, to avoid a lawsuit. The “troll” lawyers reportedly made millions from this extortionate conspiracy. But they still weren’t done. Starting in 2012, Hansmeier and the other lawyers went into the porn business themselves, producing porn videos for the specific purpose of uploading them to torrent sites, then suing whoever downloaded the clips. In 2015, after his “porn trolling” scheme had been exposed, Hansmeier filed for bankruptcy to protect his wealth from the heavy financial sanctions imposed on him by courts for his “porn trolling” caper. But a United States bankruptcy trustee in 2016 filed a lawsuit to deny Hansmeier bankruptcy protection, alleging that the lawyer defrauded the bankruptcy court by lying about the value of those assets and concealing them from the court, including a stash of $178,000 in cash that Hansmeier allegedly kept in a closet, according to The Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  The bankruptcy fraud allegations are the basis of the new complaint against Hansmeier, filed by Minnesota’s Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility, which seeks further discipline against the lawyer including possible disbarment—though his license to practice law has been suspended indefinitely since 2016, according to a Star-Tribune report.  The “porn trolling” operation was not the end of Hansmeier’s illegal schemes, according to a report by TechDirt. After his porn scheme was exposed, Hansmeier allegedly found a new source of income: filing lawsuits against Minnesota small businesses for supposed violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  According to a report by KMSP-TV, Hansmeier and his associates would drive around Minneapolis looking for businesses to sue, then attempting to pressure those businesses into quick cash settlements. Hansmeier filed more than 100 such lawsuits, all while he was simultaneously in court seeking bankruptcy protection while maintaining his residence in a “million dollar condo” on the 31st floor of the ritzy Carlyle Building in downtown Minneapolis. Hansmeier has 20 days to respond to the new complaint against him by the disciplinary board. He is still awaiting a sentencing date on his earlier guilty pleas. Photo by KMSP-TV YouTube Screen Capture