LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A member of a Los Angeles temple apologized Thursday for offering an internship in a U.S. senator's office as part of a charity auction that the founder of "Girls Gone Wild" says he won.
Chad Brownstein said he didn't get Sen. Mark Pryor's permission to list the internship and didn't think it would be posted online before he had a chance to check with the office. He apologized to Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat, in a letter Brownstein provided to The Associated Press.
A day earlier, Pryor asked the FBI to investigate who offered his internship in the auction benefiting the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis says he won the internship in the auction and planned to include it in a prize package for his TV contest, "The Search for the Hottest Girl in America." The temple has returned his money and he's no longer listing the internship as part of the prize package.
On Wednesday, Pryor's spokeswoman called the internship listing "a hoax" and alleged that the perpetrator was "fraudulently impersonating a U.S. senator."
"This proves this was not a hoax and I think the senator owes me an apology," Francis told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.
Pryor released a statement reiterating that he has "never sold, auctioned or donated internships."
"I am glad the responsible party has come forward to clear up the matter," Pryor said. "I had already referred the case to the FBI, and it is now up to them to determine whether a crime has been committed."