LOCAL : $800,000 in Property Seized at Home of Alleged Porno Kingpin

About $800,000 in artworks and other property was seized from the Van Nuys home of alleged pornography kingpin Reuben Sturman to help pay off a $4.9-million tax bill, the Internal Revenue Service reported today.

The property was taken Thursday from Sturman’s sprawling home in the 13900 block of Weddington Street and will later be sold at a public auction to pay the back taxes, said Patricia Hudak, IRS assistant public affairs officer in Cleveland.

Sturman was convicted in Cleveland last year of violating banking requirements, conspiracy and tax fraud involving the proceeds from a huge pornography distribution empire.

The IRS did not reveal what specific items were taken from the 5,610-square-foot, Tudor-style house in Van Nuys because the list was sealed by court order, Hudak said. The IRS has also placed a tax lien against the football-field-size property, which is surrounded by a 5-foot-high fence.

Earlier this year, IRS agents also seized property and placed a lien against a house owned by the 65-year-old Sturman in Cleveland, Hudak said.

The proceeds from auction of property taken in both seizures will be used to defray $4.9 million in taxes and interest Sturman owes for the years 1978 through 1982, Hudak said.

Hudak said the seizures occurred because other efforts to collect the money from Sturman, who is appealing his conviction, were unsuccessful.

After his conviction Nov. 17, 1989, in Cleveland, Sturman was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $2.46 million. He remains free on $1-million bail while appealing the conviction. He could not be located for comment.

Sturman, who was described in a 1986 presidential report as the world’s largest distributor of pornography, is awaiting trial next month in Las Vegas on charges of racketeering and interstate transportation of obscene material.