The owners and two employees of the infamous adult websites GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys were charged in federal court in San Diego, Thursday, with operating a sex trafficking conspiracy, per a federal criminal complaint. The three women and one man stand charged with crimes in connection with a scheme to deceive and coerce young women to appear in sex videos.
According to the unsealed complaint, owners Michael James Pratt and Matthew Isaac Wolfe along with performer / producer Ruben Andre Garcia and administrative assistant Valorie Moser ran a scheme to deceive and coerce young women to appear in sex videos.
UPDATED: Read the full complaint below
Prosecutors say they used deception and false promises to lure the victims, who had responded to ads for modeling jobs that would supposedly pay $5,000. Eventually the women were told the job was actually for adult videos.
To persuade the women to participate, the defendants convinced them they could remain anonymous and that their videos would not be posted on the internet. In reality, the entire purpose was to post the videos on the internet.
According to financial records, the websites have generated more than $17 million in revenue.
The GirlsDoPorn defendants are charged under subsections of 18 U.S.C. § 1591 & 1594. The origin of the statutory language used dates back to the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), signed into law by President Bill Clinton (D), and The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 (JVTA), signed into law by President Barack Obama (D).
Wolfe was taken into custody Tuesday, Oct 8 by immigration officials and transferred to federal criminal custody. Garcia was arrested Wednesday. Both were arraigned Thursday afternoon. Moser’s arraignment is scheduled for tomorrow before U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Lopez.
Pratt, who is apparently in his native New Zealand, is a fugitive from justice.
On October 9 at approximately 7:00 p.m., FBI agents executed a search warrant at an office located in the Spreckels Theatre Building located at 121 W. Broadway in San Diego. According to the search warrant, the office was used by members of the conspiracy to operate the GirlsDoPorn website.
Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking
From the unsealed federal indictment:
In or about May 2015, within the Southern District of California and elsewhere, defendants Michael James Pratt, Matthew Wolfe, and Ruben Andre Garcia, in and affecting interstate commerce, knowingly did recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, maintain, patronize, and solicit, by any means a person, to wit, Adult Female 1 (“AF-1 “), knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that means of force, threats of force, fraud, coercion, and any combination of such means, will be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act; in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591(a) and (b)(l).
Allegations in the complaint mirror those made in the ongoing civil fraud trial: young women were mistreated during video shoots; pressured or threatened into signing contracts; and once filming was completed, some were paid less than the agreed-upon fee.
Forfeiture
In the forfeiture allegations section of the complaint, prosecutors wrote that upon conviction on the four counts of the indictment, the defendants “shall forfeit… all right, title, and interest in (1) any property, real or personal, used or intended to be used to commit or to facilitate the commission of the offense; (2) any property, real or personal, constituting or derived from, any proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of the offense.”
The scope of the property to be to be forfeited “includes, but is not limited to, (a) any personal property that was used or intended to be used to commit or to facilitate the commission of the offense; and (b) any property, real or personal, constituting or derived from proceeds obtained directly or indirectly as a result of such offense.”
Crime and punishment
U.S. Attorneys charged Pratt, Wolfe and Garcia with all four counts specified in the complaint. The company’s former administrative assistant, Valorie Moser, is charged under only one count of the indictment: the conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.
At least 22 women featured on the GirlsDoPorn.com have sued the site’s owners, charging that the pornographers used lies and coercion to gain their participation. That civil trial is expected to wrap up later this month. The criminal trial likely won’t get started for several months.
The federal criminal charges of sex trafficking conspiracy carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, along with a fine of up to $250,000.
One Response
When feds smell money they really bring the hammer down to get all the fines and forfeiture of assets they can. They money they grab rarely goes to the victims.
Of course they are gonna throw out this decades boogeyman words “Human Trafficking”.