The Denver-based company, which runs nearly 60 adult stores throughout the country, also was found to have distributed a video deemed obscene by the government late last year.
Wedelstedt has always held steadfast to the belief that peddling porn and helping kids is not on odd coupling, and has promised to keep his charity alive throughout his 13-month prison stint scheduled to begin next week.
He told reporters that he was more worried about the affect his sentence would have on “his kids” than he was for himself.
“It worries me a lot; it worries and it scares me a lot because I don't want them to be affected,” he said.
When Wedelstedt’s case first became public, a number of organizations that had benefited from his children’s group began to distance themselves from the organization. Several, including a local Boy’s and Girl’s Club, stressed that accepting his money was in no way an endorsement of the adult industry, while others, like the Ronald McDonald House, claimed no record of any affiliation with Eddie’s Kids.
Mark Wilson, who runs a group called Denver Kids for Hope, told XBiz that while he didn’t agree with how Wedelstedt made his money, it certainly had helped his organization.
“The kids looked at him like Santa Claus,” he said. “If he broke the law, he deserves to go to prison, but he’s helped a lot of people. Money is money, I don’t see how any group that needed it would refuse it just because he sells adult products.”