Michael Pratt operated the GirlsDoPorn adult video service. Photo / File
Michael Pratt operated the GirlsDoPorn adult video service. Photo / File
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.
Prior to beingarrested at a Madrid hotel in 2022, Pratt, 42, was on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list.
In his plea agreement, Pratt pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sex traffic and sex trafficking. He will be sentenced on September 8.
According to the summary of charges, 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.
Christchurch Boys' High School class 4Ha photograph from 1997. Michael Pratt is in the third row second from right. Photo / Supplied
Pratt was charged in October 2019 in the Southern District of California with sex trafficking crimes in connection with a scheme to deceive and coerce young women to appear in pornographic videos.
He liquidated his assets and fled the United States in mid-2019.
Pratt is one of five co-defendants of the scheme – three of which have been sentenced to prison, while a fourth awaits sentencing.
Childhood friend, fellow Kiwi, and GirlsDoPorn employee Matthew Isaac Wolfe was jailed for 14 years last year for tricking scores of women into becoming porn stars.
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.
Theodore Gyi, who served as a cameraman, was sentenced to four years prison in November 2022, while Valorie Moser, the office manager, will be sentenced on September 12.
An order, lodged in the US District Court Southern District of California against Pratt, Wolfe, Garcia aka “Jonathan”, Gyi aka “Teddy”, Moser, and Amberly Dee Nored aka “Amberlyn Clark”, sought forfeiture of various electronic devices, including phones and hard drives, as well as three Bitcoin crypto accounts totalling almost NZ$1.3m at today’s prices.
In December 2022, Pratt was the 529th person to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, which was established by controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 1950.
New Zealander Michael James Pratt has been named on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. Photo / Supplied
Pratt’s most wanted poster, circulated around the world, offered a reward up to US$100,000 for information leading to his arrest.
“From approximately 2012 to October 2019, in the Southern District of California and elsewhere, Michael James Pratt and others allegedly participated in a conspiracy to recruit young adult and minor women to engage in commercial sex acts by force,” the FBI’s wanted poster alleged.
Pratt, who moved from New Zealand to the United States in 2009, was wanted on 19 charges, including sex trafficking, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor and money laundering.
It was alleged he used pornography to rake in earnings of US$17m.
Michael James Pratt will be sentenced in September. Photo / Supplied
The women, many of whom were struggling financially, were allegedly offered between US$3000 and US$5000 as payment, as well as an “all expenses” trip to San Diego, authorities claim.
“They repeatedly assure the victims they will never publish the videos online and that the women will remain anonymous,” according to a civil claim that has subsequently been successful in the US courts.
