The attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, made the announcement this morning in Los Angeles to Reuters.
“It goes without saying that the stories of Kevin attempting to sell such a video are patently false and anyone who reports that they have information of such attempts is either lying or reporting the lie of someone else,” Kaplan said.
However, representatives of BetUS.com, an online gambling site that allegedly was negotiating with Federline’s agent last weekend to purchase the tape, still maintain that the tape exists.
“She [Spears] has probably paid him enough money or worked out a settlement so they can say it never happened,” BetUS publicist Christopher Bennett told XBIZ. “We thought it [the negotiations] was stalling. We thought something was up there, so maybe this is what was going on.”
Bennett also said he had good reason to believe the tape exists.
“I think there is a tape just because I’ve talked to enough people who have seen it,” Bennett said. “They claim they’ve seen parts of it and I trust them on good authority. They’re credible sources of mine. They’re people that I deal with in the online news media.”
BetUS has not been told officially by Federline’s representatives that the alleged negotiations are over, according to Bennett, but he said he believes the tape will never be released.
“I think her people said, ‘OK, what’s it going to take to put this tape back in her hands and make sure this doesn’t get out?’” Bennett said. “I’m sure they did some behind the scenes thing to make sure it didn’t happen. I was disappointed. I thought we would have it by the weekend, but things started getting weird and calls weren’t getting returned. By that point, I knew something was falling apart. I heard they’re doing a joint statement that says there is no sex tape now.”
Earlier this month, a Los Angeles judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Spears against Us Weekly, claiming that the magazine had defamed her when it reported the existence of the sex tape. Shortly after that, Spears filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences with Federline and seeking sole custody of their children.
Federline responded the following day with court papers seeking spousal support and custody of the children.
