Backpage. com pleads guilty to human trafficking
Company CEO also pleads guilty to money- laundering charges
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The chief executive of a website that authorities have dubbed an “online brothel” pleaded guilty to California money- laundering charges Thursday, while the company itself pleaded guilty to human trafficking in Texas.
Carl Ferrer will cooperate in prosecuting Backpage. com’s creators and will serve no more than five years in state prison under a California plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of money laundering in California.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the company pleaded guilty to human trafficking in Texas.
Ferrer also agreed to make the company’s data available to law enforcement as investigations and prosecutions continue. The guilty pleas are the latest in a cascade of developments in the last week against the company founded by the former owners of the Village Voice in New York City, Michael Lacey, 69, and James Larkin, 68.
The company founders were among company officials indicted by a federal grand jury in Arizona, while Ferrer, 57, was noticeably absent from the indictment. The U. S. Justice Department also seized and shut down the website used to prominently advertise escorts and massages, among other services and some goods for sale. Authorities allege the site was often used to traffic underage victims, while company officials said they tried to scrub the website of such ads.
Attorneys for the company and the three men did not respond to multiple telephone and email messages from The Associated Press.
“Human trafficking is modern- day slavery, and it is happening in our own backyard,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement announcing the plea deal. “The shutdown of Backpage. com is a tremendous victory for the survivors and their families. And the conviction of CEO Ferrer is a game- changer in combatting human trafficking in California, indeed worldwide.”