Internet Pornographer Operates Business from Detroit Jail Cell

by Matt Clarke

For over a year and a half, Francis A. Sharrak, 45, managed his multimillion-dollar Internet pornography and strip club business from a downtown Detroit VIP isolation jail cell using a laptop equipped with a cell phone he was not authorized to possess.

Sharrak, 44, was incarcerated in the Wayne County Jail awaiting sentencing on federal tax charges in August 2010 when he apparently came up with the scheme to run his business while incarcerated. He was representing himself and filed a motion to be allowed a laptop computer in his cell to prepare his court papers. The motion was denied, but Sharrak got his laptop anyway.

Undersheriff Daniel Pfannes said that a single employee lied, telling Sheriff's Office officials that Sharrak had a court order requiring that they allow him to possess and use the laptop. That employee has since been fired. Pfannes said policies were being changed to avoid a repeat of the problem.

Sharrak was incarcerated in a large isolation cell that once held former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. When asked about the VIP treatment, Pfannes said the decision was made "based on the specific needs of his incarceration as determined by the director of jails," adding that Sharrak was representing himself and was entitled to privacy to prepare his legal arguments.

What is amazing is that Sharrak kept the laptop so long considering the fact that he couldn't keep from blabbing about it when using the monitored and recorded prisoner telephone.

"Now, I am the first one ever to have a computer in the history of this jail," Sharrak told a female friend in a January 2011 phone call. On other recorded calls, he said that he "had illegitimate access in his jail cell to a privately-owned personal computer equipped with Internet access, a camera, photo, video, text and email capabilities, and the ability to communicate by voice and video over the Internet through software programs such as Skype."

Investigators were able to determine that Sharrak used all of those capabilities, with the possible exception of Skype. On March 8, 2012, Sheriff's Office employees finally got a clue and seized the laptop. Sharrak filed a motion to get it back, claiming it was essential to the preparation of his case, which the judge promptly denied.

"This court did not authorize the possession of any electronic devices in his cell," wrote U.S. District Judge Robert Cleveland.

Sharrak made $3.7 million from his business between 1997 and 2001. His services include operating and promoting adult Internet sites and consulting with strip clubs. He used the computer and prisoner telephones to discuss movement of funds and management decisions at strip clubs.

The last laugh may be on Sharrak as Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Gilmer-Hill asked in a sentencing memorandum that Judge Cleveland take into consideration Sharrak's flaunting of the jail's rules when pronouncing his sentence. Cleveland may also have considered that Sharrak lied to the court, claiming in a handwritten October 2010 filing that he "has only the use of bowling/golf pencils" with which to write his legal documents.

On April 30, 2012, Sharrak was sentenced to six years in a federal prison and ordered to pay $4.2 million in restitution.

Source: www.freep.com

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