from www.thewrap.com – Paramount Pictures’ “Middle Men” was a flop last month despite positive buzz. But that was the least of the problems for producer Christopher Mallick [pictured right], upon whose own pioneering role in commercializing online porn the film was based.
Worry now is rapidly growing worldwide that the Hollywood newcomer is also flopping in his real-life business, and taking his real-life porn customers down with him.
As owner of the Visa-branded ePassporte, Mallick (pictured with “Middle Men” star Luke Wilson) is the middle man handling transactions in the tens of millions of dollars for an extensive network of online pornography sites.
In a rare move shrouded in mystery, Visa International has suspended transactions with the virtual payment system, an equivalent to Paypal.
And it’s not the first time ePassporte has hit a roadblock. In 2008, Mallick was forced to stop processing its gambling transactions in the wake of a widespread federal investigation of the industry.
Visa’s action last week blocked online porn enthusiasts when they attempted to use what amounts to a prepaid cyber credit card.
According to frantic chat-room postings, ePassporte account holders worldwide also have been blocked from accessing untold sums of cash through ATMs using pre-loaded cards. One ePassporte customer purportedly has $248,758.38 in his account.
Some ePassporte account members fear he has absconded with their money. Oddly, others see the development as a publicity stunt to promote “Middle Men” — an unlikely scenario with the movie movie having vanished from theaters after an opening box office of $325,641 last month.
“Maybe Mr. Mallick is doing a … good trick to create [noise] around his name so more people…watch his movie,” wrote “Firestarter9.”
Mallick announced last week on ePassporte that Visa had pulled the plug.
“[W]e were notified that effective immediately, Visa International has suspended our banking partner’s ePassporte Visa program,” Mallick wrote, calling development “drastic” and “unconscionable.”
And then he disappeared. He resurfaced abruptly Thursday in a new posting on the GoFuckYourself.com message board, in which he sought to inspire confidence in the company.
“First, be assured that your funds are fully safe and protected,” he wrote. “You are owed that and it will be fulfilled. The funds are secure.”
ePassporte is consumed with complex preparations to return customers’ cash, not “hiding,” “avoiding” or “stringing you along,” he added. “We too have funds that are stuck in the system, as well as massive costs of operation without any income.”
He said he hadn’t seen the suspension coming “and as of today we still have received no good basis for it.”
In his initial statement, Mallick implied that Visa’s action involved unspecified issues between the credit-card company and the bank through which ePassporte operates — St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank.
But in a statement to the web-security news blog KrebsonSecurity.com,