Ric Williams told XBIZ he felt a limited liability structure was the best for his company after he brought Radamaker, Cage and Lamour on. "It's better than a partnership; it protects our personal assets," he said. "Also, taxation is a lot better than [when] forming a corporation."
Black Widow Talent Agency LLC said it is one of only five legal, licensed and bonded agencies in the adult industry, since it opened in June of 2006. "We weren't going to be suitcase pimps, we wanted to do it legally," Williams said.
Williams said that since California law states that a business cannot book talent without a license, and because Black Widow is bonded with the state for a $50,000 fee, the company has their clients' best interests in mind.
"If for any reason they don’t get paid, they go down to state and the state will come after my house, so the talent is always going to get money. The law is set up to protect the talent, and agreements with the state are that we can't put talent in any unsafe situations, and we can only charge state-regulated fees."
Black Widow charges 10 percent of the performer's wages, while the California state maximum is 20 percent. Williams said the agency is also required to pay workers' compensation, and must run out of an office.
"As working performers, Ethan and I have real life experience to make sure our girls don't get thrown into bad situations like we see happening from a lot of unlicensed agencies," Lamour said.
