SAN DIEGO — The FBI announced Wednesday that it had placed GirlsDoPorn owner Michael Pratt on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and doubled the reward for information leading to his arrest from $50,000 to $100,000.
As XBIZ reported, the federal law enforcement agency previously raised the reward to $50,000 in October 2021.
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives page devoted to Pratt includes photographs, a downloadable "most wanted" poster and a summary of the case that states, “From approximately 2012 to 2019, Michael James Pratt and others allegedly participated in a conspiracy to recruit young adult and minor women to engage in commercial sex acts by force, fraud and coercion. Pratt and a co-conspirator owned and operated a pornography production company and online pornography websites, ‘GirlsDoPorn’ and ‘GirlsDoToys.’ Pratt and his co-conspirators allegedly recruited young women from around the United States and Canada by posting false internet advertisements for clothed modeling jobs, which the victims later discovered were pornographic productions.”
Pratt, the FBI posting continues, “also allegedly paid other young women working at his and his co-conspirators' direction to act as references and provide false assurances to the women that, if they filmed a pornographic video, the video would not be posted online. Some women were allegedly not permitted 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 also noted that “Pratt's pornography websites generated more than $17 million U.S. dollars in revenue” and that “a federal arrest warrant was issued for Pratt in the United States District Court, Southern District of California, on November 6, 2019.”
The Bureau is encouraging tipsters who may have any information concerning Pratt to contact the local FBI office or the nearest American embassy or consulate.
As Accomplices Plead Guilty, Pratt Remains at Large
On July 26, Matthew Wolfe, Pratt's second in command for the shuttered GirlsDoPorn website, pleaded guilty in a San Diego federal court to a single count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
Wolfe was Pratt’s main associate. Pratt, a New Zealand national, escaped the U.S. before federal charges against the company and its employees were unsealed in 2019.
Wolfe, the San Diego Daily Tribune noted in July, admitted as part of his plea that “he was aware that the names and social media accounts for some women were posted on another website controlled by Pratt, resulting in severe harassment of the women by internet trolls. Still, Wolfe and others continued to assure recruits that their videos, and identifies, would remain secret.”
The other website controlled by Pratt was identified in other court records as PornWikiLeaks.com.
The January 2019 federal indictment named Pratt, male talent and scout Ruben Andre "Dre" Garcia, Wolfe and three others as co-conspirators in the GDP operation.
In December 2020, Garcia pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. In June 2021, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Pratt has been a fugitive from U.S. federal authorities since late 2019 and was last presumed to be in his native New Zealand two years ago.
While Pratt’s current whereabouts are unknown, San Diego FBI spokesperson Special Agent William McNamara stated in July, “We know there are people that are helping Pratt.”
For XBIZ's ongoing coverage of the GDP case, click here.
