Michael Pratt, owner of GirlsDoPorn, pleads guilty to multiple sex trafficking counts
Christchurch-born pornographer Michael James Pratt pleaded guilty to multiple sex trafficking counts in the federal court in San Diego on Thursday.
The owner of adult website GirlsDoPorn had been awaiting trial after initially pleading not guilty following his arrest and extradition from Spain to the United States.
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A Christchurch-born man has pleaded guilty to multiple sex trafficking charges in a United States federal court. Pornographer Michael James Pratt, the owner of adult website GirlsDoPorn, had been awaiting trial after he initially pleaded not guilty following his arrest and extradition from Spain to the United States, the New Zealand Herald reported. He pleaded guilty in San Diego on Thursday. In his plea agreement, the Herald reported Pratt pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sex traffic and sex trafficking. He is due to be sentenced on September 8. Prior to being arrested at a Spanish hotel in 2022, Pratt, 42, was on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. The Herald reported the summary of charges states that sex trafficking conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charge of sex trafficking carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison and a US$250,000 ($414,000) fine. Pratt was charged in October 2019 in California with sex trafficking crimes in connection with a scheme to deceive and coerce young women to appear in pornographic videos, the Herald reported. He liquidated his assets and fled the United States in mid-2019. Pratt was one of five co-defendants in the case. Three have been sentenced to prison, while a fourth awaits sentencing, the Herald reported. Christchurch pornographer shamed in court His childhood friend from Christchurch, Matthew Isaac Wolfe, was jailed for 14 years in March last year for tricking scores of women into becoming porn stars. Wolfe had claimed in court that he was effectively forced to go and work for his friend after the February 22, 2011, earthquake in Christchurch. Pratt and Wolfe met at primary school in Christchurch. While they attended different secondary schools - Christchurch Boys' High and Burnside High respectively - they remained friends. Ruben Andre Garcia, who was recruited by Pratt in 2013 and was the male model who engaged in sex acts on video with the women, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2021, the Herald reported. Theodore Gyi, who served as a cameraman, was sentenced to four years in prison in November 2022, while Valorie Moser, the office manager, will be sentenced on September 12. In May, the Herald reported US authorities have moved to seize more than $1.2 million in cryptocurrency from Pratt.
1News
a day ago
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Kiwi porn site founder accused of sex trafficking pleads guilty in US
A New Zealand man who founded a California-based porn empire that recruited women with false modelling offers pleaded guilty to sex trafficking charges in a federal court, authorities said. Michael James Pratt pleaded guilty Thursday (local time) in federal court in San Diego, according to the US Department of Justice. He faces a possible life sentence when he is sentenced September 25. Pratt, 42, was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list when he was arrested in Madrid in 2022, three years after he fled while facing sex trafficking charges. 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 victimised by fraud and breach of contract. ADVERTISEMENT Where to get help for sexual violence. (Source: 1News) 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 favour of the women and handed down a US$12.7 million (NZ$21 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 September 12.
