Joe Francis has escaped jail time in his tax trial after striking a plea deal with Los Angeles prosecutors. Read more on the “Girls Gone Wild” creator’s plea deal below.

Joe Francis was arrested in 2007 and charged with two counts of filing fraudulent tax returns,which amounted to $20 million!  Francis faced up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

But Francis won’t have to take the stand as planned next month after reaching a deal with authorities.

The deal calls for Francis to plead guilty to the charges, pay a $250,000 fine and receive credit for the 301 days in jail that he already served.

This has to be a huge relief for Joe Francis who also is involved in a lawsuit against three former employees he claims tried to embezzle cash from him.

On top of all those legal problems, Joe Francis is under investigation by the LA Country Sheriff’s Department for the altercation with Brody Jenner’s girlfriend Jayde Nicole.  Jayde claims Joe Francis hit her at a nightclub last month.

Joe Francis released the following statement:

“I am grateful that Judge Otero accepted my plea today. I’m very pleased, if the judge accepts our agreement with the government, all felony tax charges will be dismissed and I will not spend any more time in jail. I look forward to the complete resolution of this matter on November 6. Demand for the Girls Gone Wild brand has grown tremendously in the past 12 years and we have a lot of work to do to accommodate that demand. I’m happy to finally be able to redirect my attention to the business at hand, which is to provide quality entertainment for our millions of fans around the world. I want to thank Brad Brian, Greg Weingart, Susan Nash and the lawyers at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLC in Los Angeles, and David Houston in Reno. The one thing I’ve learned about myself during this process is that I can be a difficult client, but they are a fantastic group of brilliant legal minds who recognized the truth when they saw it and had the passion to care about what happened to me. “

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Images: Wenn.com

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