Nacho Vidal’s path from porn sets to prison cells

Porn star Nacho Vidal’s last public appearance before his arrest for links to the massive Chinese money-laundering ring busted by police on Tuesday was at the Barcelona Erotic Show, which took place last weekend.

The actor, who was released by police on Thursday pending charges, took part in a mass orgy involving around 40 volunteers for the new show by Catalan theater group La Fura dels Baus, and also hosted a sex workshop in which he taught new techniques to improve satisfaction.

A veteran of more than 3,500 adult movies, 38-year-old Vidal is a legend in the porn industry. His career began in the notorious Bagdad club in Barcelona, where as a youngster he performed live sex acts on stage. One day in 1998, one of the customers asked to have a coffee with him. It was Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi, who invited Vidal to the United States, where adult movie actors could earn salaries that were unthinkable in Spain.

Since his move to the States, Vidal’s career has gone from strength to strength. His fame, his contracts and an almost innate proficiency for making X-rated cinema have, over time, turned him into the successor to his mentor Siffredi.

Vidal is an enterprising figure, with several other projects on the go, including a restaurant in Formentera. He has also said he wants to breed thoroughbred Spanish horses. At the Barcelona Erotic Show, the actor was promoting his new project, La Mansión de Nacho (Nacho’s Mansion), an internet reality show in which he plans to lock himself up in his house in Valencia for three months with a number of different women.

Now though, Vidal has found himself in the eye of a hurricane. According to the investigation, the actor is alleged to have issued false invoices from his production company. His sister, Coté Jordá, and brother-in-law were also arrested in the plot. So far, Vidal’s alleged role in the money-laundering ring, which is thought to have been masterminded by the Chinese businessman Gao Ping, is believed to be tangential. For his part, he maintains his innocence. “Nacho’s lawyers know that he is calm and certain of his complete innocence,” read a message on his official Twitter account.

It is not the first time the actor has had run-ins with the law, however. In 2004, under strange circumstances, he and four other foreign actors attending the First Mexico Erotic Festival were detained as illegal immigrants, ordered to pay a 46,000-peso fine and told to leave the country “voluntarily.” Mexican authorities failed to give any convincing explanation for the decision.