Porn king's empire shrivels

JOHN SELKIRK/The Dominion Post

RED LIGHT: Porn entrepreneur Steve Crow says poor attendance at Erotica Expo's last two shows contributed to the company's failure. Another of his companies, Vixen Direct, is also in liquidation.

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Creditors of two of Steve Crow's failed companies are unlikely to see any of their money again, although the porn entrepreneur has transferred the firms' assets into another company and continues to trade.

Vixen Direct, an importer and wholesaler of adult DVDs, and Erotica Expo, the operator of the Erotica sex expos, were both put into liquidation in May at Mr Crow's request.

He was the sole director of both companies, which have since been renamed Z4K74D and Malibu Media.

Lloyd Hayward of accountants Meltzer Mason Heath, the liquidator for both companies, said Vixen Direct owed $262,000 to unsecured creditors and Erotica Expo owed about $145,000.

There was not much chance of creditors getting money back, he said.

"There's not a lot of money available in the first place if you look at the book value of the assets."

Mr Crow blamed the demise of Vixen Direct on parallel importing and piracy. Erotica Expo was hit by poor attendance at its last two shows, in Wellington in November and Christchurch in March, he said.

"Wellington was on election day and that compounded with the general downturn in the market. And then Christchurch was considerably down and I just looked at it and thought, if I'm sweeping house I may as well sweep house."

Vixen Direct and Erotica Expo were 100 per cent owned by another company, CVC Group, which had sold those assets into another company called Eden Digital, Mr Crow said.

"I've basically consolidated Vixen, Erotica and NZX Magazine into one company and trimmed a whole lot of overheads and we're continuing to trade."

There would be an Erotica expo in Auckland in September and one in New Plymouth in October, he said.

Eden Digital was also launching new websites, featuring web cams and streaming, targeted mainly at overseas markets.

Mr Crow said he would not be making any attempt to recompense creditors of the liquidated companies.

"I don't have any obligation to do so and it's an unfortunate fact of business these days. No-one does it to me when they go under."