Shamed New Zealand pornographer Michael Pratt speaks from US prison cell

Michael Pratt, who is facing life imprisonment for sex trafficking in the United States after three years on the run, has broken his silence. Composite image / NZME

A notorious New Zealand porn pedlar who spent years as a global fugitive from FBI special agents has broken his silence. Speaking exclusively to the Herald from inside a US prison where he faces 20-plus years after admitting sex trafficking charges, Michael Pratt finally apologises for causing harm to scores of women tricked into appearing in his videos. Kurt Bayer reports.

When they finally came, he was almost glad it was over. Pinned to the ground, a burly Spanish policeman’s knee in the small of his back, guns at his head, Michael James Pratt, aka Mark Pratt, aka Michael J. Pratt, the former Christchurch Boys’ High School student and wannabe porn mogul, could finally breathe.

Being one of the world’s most wanted men had taken its toll.

Sneaking across borders, dipping into stashed crypto cash, hitting up friends for favours across South America, Asia and Europe, he wasn’t sure if he could go on any longer.

But the thought of being caught – and being extradited to America, where authorities accused him of “sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion”, to face a possible life sentence behind bars – kept him moving.

Even now, in a San Diego prison, Pratt is guarded about the full extent of his involvement in the porn sites that ruined many women’s lives.

He refused to respond to some of the most serious allegations, on the advice of his lawyer, and appeared to downplay the true nature of his “business”, but in answering Herald questions relayed via a family member, he gave his version of the story for the first time.

First, when it became apparent to him that America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was looking to arrest him, he decided to make a run for it.

New Zealander Michael James Pratt was named on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list.

He had been in the US since 2007, first moving to Boston, where he had friends already involved in the sex industry.

Pratt – who would later be joined by Christchurch childhood friend Matthew Isaac Wolfe, who was jailed for 14 years last year over his role in the scandal – says he went with no set business plans but more of an “idea” of how to get into the adult film game.

In 2009, he and Wolfe – who in 2000, still in their teens, launched three websites: Wicked Movies, TeenieFlixxx and Kute Kittens – started the subscription site, GirlsDoPorn, operating out of San Diego, California.

It was a runaway success. While the website was locked down for subscribers only, it marketed itself by sharing – for free – short video clips on some of the busiest websites in the world.

According to court documents, the videos ended up being watched a billion times, not including pirated versions which generated views in the hundreds of millions.

Christchurch Boys' High School class 4Ha photograph from 1997. Michael Pratt is in the third row second from right.

In 2014, Pratt, who was not a US citizen, launched two spin-off sites: Mom POV, featuring older amateur women, and GirlsDoToys, with Wolfe.

The cash was rolling in.

Asked what life was like at the time, Pratt struggled to understand the question, saying it just felt “normal”, treating his activities as an ordinary day job or business.

But the business was not ordinary or straightforward.

US prosecutors say that Pratt, who ran the now-defunct websites for around seven years, coerced hundreds of women to appear in the pornographic videos under false pretences.

Michael Pratt was finally arrested by Spanish police at a hotel in Madrid.

They said that Pratt, and others, lured unsuspecting women with advertisements for clothed modelling gigs.

The women, many of whom were struggling financially, were offered thousands of dollars and assurances that the videos would never be published online and that they would remain anonymous, according to a civil claim which has subsequently been successful in the US courts.

But the videos soon surfaced online and were spread worldwide.

The consequences for many of the women were devastating. In court hearings, victims have spoken about losing their jobs, being evicted, dropping out of school or being ostracised by friends and family. Some attempted suicide.

Michael James Pratt. Photo / FBI

Pratt’s shady empire soon came crumbling down. When a pre-federal warrant was issued for his arrest, he took off.

First, he slipped away from San Diego, south, across the border into Tijuana and then Mexico City and the anonymity of its 20 million inhabitants.

His vanishing act worked. The FBI had no idea where he was – and nor did any of his family members.

From Mexico, he drifted further south to South America, eventually ending up in Chile.

Pratt told the Herald that he then made a bold move – back to his homeland, quietly arriving in New Zealand.

He claims he used New Zealand travel documents during his journeying, with stashed-away Bitcoin to fund his way.

It’s understood his lucrative production company and websites GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys had raked in more than US$17 million ($30m at the time). Recently, American authorities laid a forfeiture order for three Bitcoin cryptocurrency accounts allegedly linked to Pratt which amounted to almost $1.3m.

Pratt refused to answer other questions about how he managed to conceal his identity and whereabouts for so long.

However, the FBI believed he might be using some aliases – and getting help from acquaintances.

From New Zealand, he flew to Singapore, where he knew people, and then into Europe – Turkey, Cyprus and then down into Spain.

By now, Interpol had been alerted and he was being shared on the global group’s network.

The FBI also ramped up its hunt.

In an extraordinary move, he was placed on the infamous FBI Top 10 Most Wanted list, which once featured 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, serial killer Ted Bundy and Dr Martin Luther King’s assassin, James Earl Ray. There was also a US$100,000 reward offered for any information that led to his arrest.

“I am certain that Pratt will be caught,” FBI San Diego special agent Renee Green told the Herald in October 2022.

“We also consider Pratt to be persuasive and manipulative, and he could very likely be promising gifts and/or money to people who will help him hide from justice.”

But being a fugitive, a man on the run, ground him down.

After three years on the run, the FBI finally caught up with Michael Pratt.

He experienced “extreme anxiety”, always looking over his shoulder and taking precautions to travel under the radar.

But on December 21, 2022 – after three years at large – his luck finally ran out. Acting on a tip-off to America’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US Marshals Service worked with Spanish National Police officers to raid a Madrid hotel and arrest him “without incident”.

Once he was cuffed and led into custody, he says, he was almost relieved.

“The capture of Michael Pratt is an example of how the FBI will pursue justice beyond US borders — you can run, but you can’t hide,” said the special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego field office, Stacey Moy.

Pratt was later extradited to the US, where he has stayed behind bars ever since.

It appeared he would fight the charges. A trial was scheduled for later this year.

But in a shock move this month, Pratt threw up his hands. He pleaded guilty to sex trafficking charges.

Matthew Isaac Wolfe was sentenced for his role last year.

In court, Pratt admitted to coming up with the idea for GirlsDoPorn, recruiting women to appear in the videos, sometimes transporting them to and from the site of a video shoot, and sometimes manning the camera, prosecutors said.

The ringleader now faces a potential life sentence when he is back in court in September.

Pratt refused to answer some questions from the Herald last week, on his lawyer’s advice, including whether the women had been tricked into appearing in his videos.

However, he says he is remorseful and “sorry” for his actions.

“Mike has said he would like to say how bad he feels to any of the girls [who] had negative consequences that came from doing the videos,” he said in a statement to the Herald via his family member.

Pratt’s been supported from afar by his family, who also spoke about the “massive strain” his case has had on them.

Jail has not been a pleasant experience. But he says he has not been treated badly by fellow inmates or authorities.

The now-42-year-old fears he is now facing a sentence of 20-plus years in jail.

Eventually, he will be deported back to New Zealand.

“Fish’n’chips sounds really great just now,” says Pratt, who faces a steady diet of prison tucker for a long time to come.

Kurt Bayer is NZ Herald’s South Island head of news based in Christchurch. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2011.