GirlsDoPorn Owner Michael Pratt Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking

Michael James Pratt, the owner of the GirlsDoPorn website, has pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court to sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking charges. Pratt, 42, was once on the FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" list and was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.

Pratt's Arrest and Extradition

Pratt fled the United States in 2019 before criminal charges were filed against him and other GirlsDoPorn employees. He was arrested in Madrid in 2022, three years after fleeing, and was extradited to San Diego in 2024. The FBI had previously increased the reward for information leading to his arrest to $50,000 in October 2021, and later to $100,000.

According to his "Top 10 Most Wanted" biography, from approximately 2012 to 2019, Pratt and others allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to recruit young adult and minor females to participate in commercial sex acts through force, fraud, and threats. Pratt and a co-conspirator operated a pornography production business and online porn websites, "GirlsDoPorn" and "GirlsDoToys."

The Bureau stated that Pratt and his accomplices reportedly recruited young women from across the USA and Canada by posting false online advertisements for clothed modeling work. The targets later discovered these were pornographic productions. Pratt also allegedly paid other girls working under his and his co-conspirators' direction to act as references and provide false assurances to the women that if they filmed an adult video, it would not be published online.

Some women were reportedly not allowed to leave the shooting locations until the videos were completed, others were allegedly forced to perform sex acts they had declined to perform, and some women were allegedly sexually assaulted. The FBI noted that Pratt's porn websites generated more than $17 million U.S. dollars in revenue. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Pratt in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, on November 6, 2019.

Co-Conspirators and Legal Proceedings

Pratt is the final defendant to enter a guilty plea in the federal prosecution. On July 26, Matthew Wolfe, described as the second-in-command for the GirlsDoPorn site and Pratt's main partner, pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court to a single count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Wolfe admitted as part of his plea that he knew the names and social media accounts for some women were posted on another website controlled by Pratt, identified in other court documents as PornWikiLeaks.com, which resulted in harassment of the women by internet trolls. Despite this, Wolfe and others continued to assure employees that their videos and identities would remain secret.

The January 2019 federal indictment named Pratt, male talent and precursor Ruben Andre "Dre" Garcia, Wolfe, and three others as accomplices in the GirlsDoPorn operation. In June 2021, Garcia was sentenced to two decades after pleading guilty in December 2020 to charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion; and sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion.

Prosecutors stated that the San Diego-based website's operators led women to believe the videos would be distributed only to private customers living outside of the country, rather than being proliferated online, despite always intending to post the videos on the internet. If women refused to finish filming, Pratt would threaten to sue them, cancel flights home, and post the videos publicly. The videos were then uploaded to GirlsDoPorn.com, where Pratt made more than $17 million in profits from 2012 to 2019.

Victim Impact and Sentencing

At Pratt's sentencing hearing, 40 women urged the court to hand down the maximum sentence. The Justice Department reported that some tearfully described their experiences in San Diego hotel rooms where they were exploited, coerced, raped, abused, and trapped. One woman stated, "The life I was meant to have, died in that hotel room." Many victims spoke directly to Pratt. One victim, who was a 21-year-old law student at the time, told the court, "I am not your victim. I'm your reckoning…I am the girl who took you down. We are an army of survivors sharing our truth and we have won." Another woman, a college student studying to become a teacher when she was victimized, addressed Pratt, saying, "This crime dismantled my identity. I lost my voice and sense of safety…The shame and despair were unbearable."

U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino sentenced Pratt on one charge of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and one count of conspiracy to commit the same crime. The consequences for the young victims were detailed in court hearings, including lost jobs, evictions, dropping out of school, and being disowned by friends and family. Some victims also attempted suicide.

Key Facts

• Michael James Pratt, owner of GirlsDoPorn, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
• Pratt was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.
• He was on the FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" list and was arrested in Madrid in 2022.
• Pratt's websites, "GirlsDoPorn" and "GirlsDoToys," generated over $17 million in revenue.
• Co-conspirator Matthew Wolfe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
• Ruben Andre "Dre" Garcia was sentenced to two decades for sex trafficking charges.