SAN DIEGO (BN24) — The founder of a California-based porn empire that lured young women into appearing in adult videos through false modeling promises was sentenced Monday to 27 years in federal prison on sex trafficking charges.
Michael James Pratt, a native of New Zealand and creator of the now-defunct GirlsDoPorn website, pleaded guilty in June in federal court in San Diego to one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and one count of conspiracy to commit the same crime. U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino handed down the sentence, describing the scale of exploitation as “profound and devastating.”
Federal prosecutors said Pratt and his associates deceived hundreds of women, many in their late teens, by offering fake modeling opportunities before coercing them into pornography. Victims testified that they were given alcohol and marijuana, pressured to sign contracts without time to review them, and in some cases sexually assaulted or confined in hotel rooms until filming was complete.
Pratt had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list before his arrest in Madrid in 2022, three years after he fled the U.S. while facing sex trafficking charges. His capture ended an international manhunt that had spanned multiple countries.
The criminal case followed a 2019 civil lawsuit in which 22 women accused Pratt and his partners of fraud, breach of contract, and abuse. In 2020, a San Diego judge ruled in favor of the women and ordered Pratt, Matthew Isaac Wolfe, and producer Ruben Andre Garcia to pay $12.7 million in damages.
Wolfe, who oversaw daily operations, finances, and marketing for GirlsDoPorn, later pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge and was sentenced in 2022 to 14 years in prison. Garcia, an adult performer and producer, received a 20-year sentence, while cameraman Theodore Gyi was sentenced to four years.
Prosecutors argued that Pratt orchestrated the scheme as the ringleader of an operation that “thrived on lies, coercion and intimidation” to profit from vulnerable young women. “The sentence sends a strong message that those who exploit others through fraud and force will face severe consequences,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California said in a statement.
Pratt, who built a multimillion-dollar business through the exploitation, now faces what advocates called overdue accountability. Many of the women have spoken publicly about the lasting trauma of the scheme, saying their lives were shattered after their images spread across the internet.
