Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis was arrested yesterday after failing to appear for a hearing in his federal tax-evasion case. Francis claimed he didn’t show up for the hearing because he had the flu. From MSNBC:

Francis was originally expected in court at 8:30 a.m. for a hearing on his attorneys’ request to withdraw as his counsel. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero waited 30 minutes for the adult-video entrepreneur to arrive and had his clerk attempt to contact Francis by telephone, with no success. At that point, Otero issued a warrant for Francis’ arrest.

When Francis showed up in Otero’s courtroom after 1:30 p.m., indicating he had been suffering from the flu, U.S. marshals cuffed him and took him into custody, said defense attorney Melissa A. Weinberger, whose firm is representing Francis in proceedings stemming from Monday’s bench warrant.

Don’t feel too bad for Joe. He’s a wheeling and dealing businessman – he’ll do just fine in prison. “Attention everybody. Anyone who doesn’t rape me gets a free Girls Gone Wild t-shirt.”