Documentary filmmakers declare {that a} Los Angeles actual property developer described as a “bundler” of marketing campaign donations with connections to now-U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.) and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif), led a double life as a infamous and abusive director of hardcore porn.
Mark Handel, a business and residential actual property developer, was additionally recognized underneath the pseudonym Khan Tusion, a pornographic director recognized for having his feminine performers overwhelmed, spat on and choked to the purpose of unconsciousness, the Every day Beast reviews.
“Individuals would point out this man ‘Khan Tusion’—they’d name him the ‘boogeyman of porn,’ ‘the Freddy Krueger of porn’,” Lucas Heyne, one of many administrators of the soon-to-be-released documentary “Pariah” about Handel, advised the outlet. “He was recognized for being probably the most verbally abusive and bodily abusive porn administrators that’s ever existed.”
Taglines to at the very least a few of Khan Tusion-directed movies seek advice from the ladies performers as “whores who like to be handled like nugatory items of meat.”
Traumatized feminine performers described brutal situations on the set, despite the fact that the director refused to permit his face to be proven on digital camera.
Handel, who in January 2021 was charged by the federal authorities with cash laundering, in addition to concealing belongings belonging to a chapter case, donated hundreds of {dollars} to the marketing campaign efforts of native politicians, together with Cadenas and Padilla, the Every day Beast reported.
The developer, in keeping with the outlet, was additionally a conduit to the Los Angeles actual property group, the members of which additionally donated to native pols. He additionally had enterprise dealings with James Acevedo, the “political godfather” to Cadenas and Padilla, the Every day Beast reported.
The outlet added that Cardenas and Padilla, whereas on the Los Angeles Metropolis Council, helped usher by means of a number of Handel-led tasks of their districts.
Handel’s agency, MWH, would later make use of a high aide of Padilla’s from his time as metropolis council president.
Padilla’s protégé, former Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, drafted a invoice to permit an MWH mission to proceed, the outlet reported. Fuentes didn’t reply the Every day Beast’s requests for remark.
Handel’s federal indictment alleges he fashioned varied firms — together with one named DTMM, which stood for “Don’t Contact My Cash – to hide revenue and involvement in actual property improvement tasks amid chapter proceedings. From 2008 to 2016, Handel obtained $4.6 million in kickbacks on an easement on an actual property deal, in keeping with a press launch from the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in central California.
The indictment, The Every day Beast notes, doesn’t point out Cardenas, Padilla or Handel’s alleged double life as a misogynistic porn director. The Every day Beast and the documentary filmmakers had been in a position to join Handel to his alter ego by means of federal and state data.
Handel is because of seem in federal court docket in Los Angeles on Feb. 21, 2023.
— Ted Glanzer