Michael Pratt, the mastermind behind the GirlsDoPorn sex trafficking ring that “extorted and terrorized women and teenage girls to produce pornography,” pleaded guilty Thursday in a San Diego federal court, three years after he was captured in Spain, where he had been living as a fugitive, federal prosecutors say.
Pratt, who was the owner of the GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys websites was charged in October 2019 as part of a 19-count indictment that accused him of sex trafficking, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor, and money laundering, all part of his “scheme to deceive and coerce young women to appear in pornographic videos,” the Department of Justice said.
The victims were lied to, federal prosecutors say, and were told the videos would not be posted online. Instead, Pratt admitted, he enticed subscribers to his website – which raked in $17 million dollars – by posting the videos on international sites like Pornhub. “Women from various places throughout the United States and Canada were recruited to appear in videos based on these material misrepresentations,” prosecutors say.
