DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO
The mastermind of a vast conspiracy that tricked and coerced young women into filming pornographic videos that were posted online without their consent pleaded guilty Thursday in San Diego federal court to two sex-trafficking charges that could see him sentenced to life in prison.
Michael James Pratt, the 42-year-old New Zealand citizen who created and operated the website GirlsDoPorn, pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and one count of conspiracy to commit the same crime.
Pratt itted in his plea agreement that between 2012 and 2019, he conspired to traffic 15 victims, though authorities have said that’s just a fraction of the actual victims of the conspiracy. More than 120 women have been involved in civil litigation against GirlsDoPorn, its related websites and free pornography sites such as PornHub that hosted GirlsDoPorn clips and generated tens of millions of views. Many of the women have testified that the public videos destroyed their lives.
U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino set Pratt’s sentencing for September. Dozens of women are expected to give victim impact statements at the hearing, as they did for the sentencing of a co-defendant last year.
Those victims said they suffered relentless torment after online trolls posted their full names and other identifying information online. Some had links or images from the videos emailed to family , bosses and college s. Many spoke of losing careers and lifelong friendships, changing their names and appearances or having to drop out of school or transfer universities. Some talked of abusing substances to numb themselves and contemplating or attempting suicide.
In court Thursday, Pratt acknowledged that the sex-trafficking charge carries a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence, that both charges carry the potential for a lifetime prison sentence and that if he’s ever released, he’ll be deported to New Zealand.
When Sammartino asked if he was satisfied with his legal representation, Pratt answered “somewhat,” then told the judge that “nothing’s really been done since I’ve been (in custody).” Under further questioning, he said he’ll be satisfied if his court-appointed attorney “helps me during sentencing.”
Pratt itted in his plea agreement that he and those who worked for him recruited young women online from across the country as models, but when they arrived in San Diego, they were pressured to have sex on camera. The women were told the videos would go to private DVD collections overseas, but instead they were widely disseminated on the GirlsDoPorn network of sites and free pornography sites.
A woman identified in the plea agreement as Victim 1 was 18 years old when Pratt itted that he “rushed (her) through a contract and did not provide her with a copy.” He paid her $2,000 and then ignored her pleas to take the video down when it was posted online nine months later, he itted.
Pratt itted in the plea agreement that GirlsDoPorn and its related websites netted him millions of dollars in revenue.
Prosecutors said Pratt liquidated his assets in 2019 and fled the U.S. At the time, he was in the midst of a civil trial in which a San Diego Superior Court judge eventually awarded nearly $13 million to 22 women who had sued him and several others involved with the GirlsDoPorn site. Later that year, federal prosecutors unsealed a sprawling indictment with Pratt as the lead defendant. As each of his co-conspirators eventually pleaded guilty and were sentenced, Pratt remained an international fugitive.
He was captured in 2022 in Spain just months after the FBI placed him on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, then extradited to the U.S. last year on the same day Sammartino sentenced his childhood friend and co-defendant Matthew Isaac Wolfe to 14 years in prison.
Wolfe itted to running the day-to-day operations of GirlsDoPorn, managing the finances, marketing the content and serving as cameraman for about 100 videos.
Sammartino sentenced adult-film actor Ruben Andre Garcia to 20 years in prison — a term that Garcia is now appealing — and Theodore “Teddy” Gyi, a cameraman who filmed about 120 of the videos, to four years in prison. Valorie Moser, a former bookkeeper, is scheduled to be sentenced a few days after Pratt.
Aside from the main criminal prosecution, the GirlsDoPorn case has spawned several related criminal cases and civil lawsuits.
Alexander Brian Foster, who filmed about 100 GirlsDoPorn videos, was sentenced to one year in federal prison for creating a retaliation video meant to harass the women and lawyers who filed the civil suit in San Diego Superior Court.
Douglas “James” Wiederhold, who has been linked in civil litigation to a GirlsDoPorn-style “mom” porn site for women over 30 years old, is awaiting a December sentencing after pleading guilty last year to sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. He itted to appearing as the male actor in 71 GirlsDoPorn videos and helping convince some women that their videos would not be posted online.
The civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions have also entangled popular free porn sites such as PornHub. In 2023, Pornhub’s parent company agreed to pay more than $1.8 million to resolve a criminal probe alleging it profited from sex trafficking through its hosting of GirlsDoPorn videos.
More than 120 women featured in GirlsDoPorn videos have sued PornHub’s parent company in two lawsuits in San Diego federal court that alleged PornHub illegally published sex-trafficking videos. PornHub’s parent company settled the first of those suits, which involved about 60 women. The of the settlement were not disclosed. The second lawsuit involving 62 women remains active but has been stayed pending the sentencings of Moser and Pratt.
