SAN DIEGO (CN) — The founder of GirlsDoPorn, a now-defunct San Diego-based porn site embroiled in a yearslong case involving multiple charges of coercion, sex trafficking, and production of child pornography, waived his right to bail in federal court on Tuesday.
Prosecutors claim that Michael James Pratt and people he worked with engaged in a bait-and-switch scheme to get young women to agree to shoot pornography after they responded to fake job listings for clothed modeling gigs.
The women claim they agreed to film porn after they were told the videos would never be published online, but instead were for a private collector in Australia, or they would be sold as DVDs overseas.
But the videos were posted to the GirlsDoPorn website, with highlight clips posted on free websites like PornHub to drive traffic and subscriptions to Pratt’s site. The site generated millions of dollars of funds from subscriptions and many of the videos were shot in San Diego, where Pratt was charged in 2019 with 19 felonies including production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
Pratt later fled the U.S. and was captured in Madrid by the Spanish National Police in 2022.
Earlier in the week, Pratt made his first appearance on Tuesday in federal court in San Diego after his extradition. He was arraigned and entered a not guilty plea.
On Thursday, Pratt appeared in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel E. Butcher and stipulated to detention, without prejudice, and waived his right to bail as he awaits trial.
However, a"without prejudice" caveat in the waiver means that Pratt reserves the right to come back to the court and ask for bail later, said Brian J. White, Pratt's attorney.
White added that he can't say if Pratt will ask for bail in the future though.
Pratt’s business partner, Matthew Isaac Wolfe, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking in 2022.
Before Pratt’s appearance in court on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino, a George W. Bush appointee, sentenced Wolfe to 14 years in prison.
In 2021, a federal judge sentenced Theodore Wilfred Gyi, a cameraman who shot over 100 videos for GirlsDoPorn and its offshoot, GirlsDoToys, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
In 2022, Gyi was sentenced to serve four years in prison. In March 2023, Sammartino ordered Gyi to pay more than $100,000 in restitution to two of his victims while in prison.
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