GirlsDoPorn boss, on the lam to avoid arrest, extradited to San Diego to face federal charges
Website founder Michael James Pratt appears in court Tuesday on same day Matthew Wolfe, is sentenced
A man accused of masterminding a vast conspiracy that tricked and coerced young women into filming pornographic videos for his online GirlsDoPorn empire has been extradited from Spain to San Diego to face numerous federal charges.
Michael James Pratt, who fled the United States during a San Diego civil trial and was subsequently charged criminally, made his initial appearance in a San Diego federal courtroom Tuesday afternoon. A not guilty plea was entered on Pratt's behalf to a 19-count indictment that includes charges of sex trafficking, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. A hearing has been set for Thursday to discuss whether the 41-year-old should be released on bail.
Pratt's appearance came as a welcome surprise to several women who had come to the courthouse earlier in the day for a different reason — to deliver victim impact statements against Pratt's business partner, who was sentenced Tuesday morning in the case.
“It was like Christmas. I jumped out of my seat,” said one victim about learning of Pratt's presence in the courthouse Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino sentenced Matthew Isaac Wolfe to 14 years in prison following his 2022 guilty plea to a felony count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking for his involvement in Pratt's company. Wolfe, 41, admitted in his plea that his responsibilities included running the dayto-day operations of the GirlsDoPorn.com website, managing the finances, marketing the content and serving as cameraman for about 100 videos.
The conspiracy count to which Wolfe pleaded guilty pertains to 15 victims, all adults.
“It's my view that you played an essential role,” Sammartino told Wolfe before sentencing him to the high end of the prisonterm range calculated by prosecutors.
Prosecutors have alleged that Pratt and those who worked for him recruited young women online as models, but when the women 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, as well as free pornography sites.
The indictment against those involved in the conspiracy was unsealed in 2019 at the same time they were fighting a Superior Court lawsuit filed by 22 women. The judge in that case found in favor of the women and handed down a $12.7 million judgment against Pratt, Wolfe, adult performer Ruben Andre Garcia and various business interests connected to Pratt.
Sammartino sentenced Garcia to 20 years in prison and sentenced 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 in August.
Pratt fled the country during the civil trial but was arrested on a San Diego warrant in late 2022 by Spanish National Police in Madrid.
According to sentencing documents filed by Wolfe and his attorney, Wolfe and Pratt grew up together in New Zealand, though they were not particularly close friends. After high school, Wolfe got into computer programming and worked at a bar.
In February 2011, an earthquake struck New Zealand, killing 185 people and causing widespread damage. Wolfe's attorney, Jeremy Warren, wrote that the country's economy ground to a halt, leaving young people like Wolfe with few job prospects. That's when childhood schoolmate Pratt offered Wolfe a job in San Diego, telling him that he needed technical help to run his business.
According to Wolfe, Pratt paid for his flight, gave him an apartment and paid him $500 a week. Initially Wolfe worked in the office maintaining the computer servers, handling payroll and taking care of other routine office tasks, but he eventually began filming videos and taking a more hands-on role within the company.
In sentencing documents, Warren argued that Wolfe was not as much of a leader as prosecutors accused him of being, writing that Pratt was the undisputed leader. “Pratt called all the shots ... it was entirely his show, with everyone else in a supporting role,” Warren wrote.
In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Foster pushed back, saying, “The idea that he was just a small fry, just a cog in the wheel, was not accurate.”
The victims also had a far different view.
“Wolfe is just as guilty as Pratt,” one victim told the judge in January.
Approximately 30 women told Wolfe and the judge, sometimes in great detail, about how Wolfe contributed to their lives being completely upended. Some women spoke during a hearing in January, while even more spoke in person and via video conference Tuesday.
The victims said they suffered relentless torment after online trolls figured out their names and posted that and other private information online. Some had links or images from the videos emailed to parents and grandparents, coworkers and bosses. For some, a simple online search for their names turns up the images.
Many talked of changed names, unfinished college degrees, lost careers, strained relationships and substance addictions as they tried to numb themselves. More than a few talked of suicide attempts.
One victim said her video was viewed “tens of millions of times.” She changed her name, appearance and profession, and she fears she will never heal. “How do you stop feeling like you want to die?” she said.
“I'm the one with the life sentence I will never be free from,” the woman later said.
One woman said Tuesday she had undergone so much cosmetic surgery to change her appearance that she could no longer get past facial recognition software at airports.
“I spent the last eight years of my life in survival mode — and it is exhausting,” she said, her voice dropping to a near whisper at the end.
Another woman said she dropped out of college and spent most of her 20s in hiding. She said it's taken years for her to learn to love herself.
“We've all been dragged through hell for years,” she said.
One victim said that in her experience, contrary to what the defense argued in its sentencing documents, Wolfe “was the one calling the shots in that hotel room.”
She said when her video surfaced publicly, she was ex-communicated by her church. Years later, she said, not a single friend showed up to her wedding. She said internet trolls still harass her, including reposting photos of her children that family members have published online. She said she has not registered to vote for fear her home address will be circulated online.
Another victim said Wolfe intimidated and threatened her. “The very first thing Mr. Wolfe did when I met him was bolt the door,” she said. “I was an object to Mr. Wolfe, not a human.”
She said she's experienced terrifying, realistic flashbacks, and that “living is a daily debate.” But she also told a powerful story of survival, telling the judge that just weeks before giving her statement, she earned her doctoral degree — even after online trolls sent her video to faculty at the universities where she completed both her master's and doctorate.
Another victim said that when she met Wolfe, the proverbial monsters underneath her childhood bed “became a reality.” She called Wolfe “bottom-ofthe-barrel scum” and said he and his co-defendants have ruined every relationship she's ever had.
But she ended her statement defiantly, telling Wolfe directly that she hoped the pain of the women who spoke that day haunted him. “May we become the monsters under your prison bed,” she said.
In court Tuesday, Wolfe apologized. “I am truly sorry for everything,” he told the judge.
Aside from the main criminal prosecution of Pratt, Wolfe and the others, the GirlsDoPorn case has also spawned other related criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits.
Last year, Alexander Brian Foster pleaded guilty to creating a retaliation video meant to harass the women and their lawyers who initially sued GirlsDoPorn and Pratt. Foster was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison.
In October, prosecutors indicted former GirlsDoPorn employee Douglas “James” Wiederhold on five counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and one count of conspiracy to commit the same alleged crime. Though the indictment offers few details about his alleged conduct, related civil cases have revealed that Wiederhold created a GirlsDoPorn-style “mom” porn site for women over 30 years old.
The civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions have also entangled popular free porn sites such as PornHub. Late last year, 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.
Sixty-two women featured in GirlsDoPorn videos have also sued Aylo Media S.A.R.L., PornHub's Luxembourg-incorporated parent company, in San Diego federal court, alleging that PornHub illegally published sex-trafficking videos. The company, which was then known as MindGeek, previously settled a similar lawsuit with about 60 women. The same attorneys represent both sets of women. The terms of the that settlement were not disclosed.