IRS Seizes Alleged Porn King’s Property

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

The property was taken Thursday from Sturman’s sprawling home in the 13900 block of Weddington Street and will 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, after an investigation by the IRS that involved proceeds from an alleged pornography distribution empire.

After his Nov. 17, 1989, conviction 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 was not living in the Van Nuys house at the time of the seizure, but Los Angeles police said he resides elsewhere in Los Angeles.

The IRS did not reveal what specific items were taken from the 5,610-square-foot, Tudor-style house in Van Nuys because the property 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 five-foot fence.

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

Proceeds from the 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 were unsuccessful.

“We ask for immediate payment,” she said. “If that fails . . . enforcement action can be taken. We try to collect the money as quickly as possible.”

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.