ARTICLE AD BOX
The founder of a California-based porn empire has pleaded guilty to sex trafficking charges in a federal court, according to authorities. Michael James Pratt, 42, entered his plea on Thursday in a federal court in San Diego, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Pratt, who was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, faces a possible life sentence when he is sentenced September 25. He was arrested in Madrid in 2022, three years after he fled while facing sex trafficking charges. His organisation is accused of luring women with false modelling offers.
Federal prosecutors said Pratt and his co-defendants used force, fraud and coercion to recruit hundreds of women, many of whom were in their late teens, for their adult videos.
A New Zealand native, he founded the now-defunct GirlsDoPorn website in San Diego. In 2019, he and others were charged in San Diego with sex crimes after being targeted in a civil lawsuit by 22 women who claimed they were victimized by fraud and breach of contract.
The women said they were plied with alcohol and marijuana before being rushed through signing a contract, which they were not allowed to read. Some said they were sexually assaulted and held in hotel rooms unwillingly until adult filming had ended.
A judge in 2020 found in favor of the women and handed down a $12.7 million judgment against Pratt, Matthew Isaac Wolfe and adult producer and performer Ruben Andre Garcia.
Wolfe, who handled day-to-day operations, finances, marketing and filming for the website, pleaded guilty in 2022 to a single federal count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. He was sentenced last year to 14 years in federal prison.
The other co-defendants also pleaded guilty. Garcia was sentenced to 20 years in prison and cameraman Theodore Gyi received a four-year sentence.
Valorie Moser, a former bookkeeper for the website, also pleaded guilty last year. She's scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 12.
English (US) ·