Riley Reynolds, the Florida-based porn talent agent featured in Netflix’s documentary Hot Girls Wanted, is being sued by a former client. Performer Lenna Lux alleges that, despite claiming otherwise, Reynolds is unlicensed as an agent in Florida, reports The Daily Beast. As such, Lux’s complaint argues that he wrongfully docked her earnings and charged her fees. Those fees drove her into debt, the complaint alleges, which he then used “as a means to control her while exploiting her.”
If the allegations are true and Reynolds has worked as an unlicensed agent in Florida, it could amount to a third-degree felony punishable with up to five years in prison. Reynolds, owner of the talent agency Hussie Models LLC, told The Daily Beast that his agency is licensed and bonded in California and does not take commission within the state of Florida.
Hot Girls Wanted, a documentary produced by Rashida Jones, focused on the experiences of several of Reynold’s clients—all young women who were just entering the porn industry. He’s shown in the film’s trailer saying, “Every day, a new girl turns 18 … I only work with amateur girls brand-new to the industry … I call them teenyboppers.” The film received critical praise, but riled some within the adult industry as an inaccurate and sensationalistic representation of the broader business. The followup series Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, which also featured Reynolds, garnered controversy after it was accused of outing a sex worker and featuring several without permission.
The beginning of Lux’s story echoes what was seen in the original Hot Girls Wanted documentary. Shortly after turning 18, Lux says that she first reached out to Reynolds in response to a Craigslist ad. At the time, she lived in Colorado and says Reynolds agreed to pay for her flight and lodging. (On Hot Girls Wanted, he’s shown posting Craigslist ads promising “free flights to Miami,” as The Daily Beast points out.) But, soon after signing a two-year contract with Hussie Models, Lux alleges that she discovered the cost of her flight was docked from the money she made through shoots and that she would be charged $40 a day for lodging.
Fast-forward a few months and, as The Daily Beast put it, Lux says that she, “owed her employer money instead of the other way around.” When she tried to end her contract with Hussie Models, she says she was hit with an invoice totaling $3,525.11, which allegedly approaches the total amount that she made through bookings.
The Daily Beast explains that Lux is not alone in her allegations against Reynolds:
Other models have made similar claims of exploitation. In two police reports obtained by The Daily Beast, former actors alleged the agent had stolen from or deceived them, both going as far as to accuse Reynolds of trafficking—a charge defined by Florida state law as the use of “force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation”—although none of the other models pressed charges.
Reynolds seems to be diligently working on his defense. Following Lux’s filing, he wrote on Facebook, “I have met the biggest pussies and pieces of shit from being in this industry,” he said, according to The Daily Beast, “and if I could ever be locked in a room with them, the horrible & disgusting things I would do to them. I would go straight to hell…….and I would without hesitation. I dream of it all the time. Screenshot this bitches.”