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SAN DIEGO – Porn website founder Michael James Pratt has been added as a fugitive to the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list as they seek to bolster attention for a man whose co-defendants were taken into custody three years ago.
Pratt, 39, is charged in U.S. District Court in San Diego with conspiracy and sex trafficking crimes. The offenses are connected to a seven-year enterprise that victimized women via force, coercion, and fraud into filming sex videos that were then posted online without their consent, Law&Crime reported.
According to prosecutors, Pratt, who is a citizen of New Zealand, operated a pornography production company and related websites GirlsDoToys and GirlsDoPorn that generated “more than $17 million in revenue” by selling access to videos that were filmed under fraudulent circumstances.
During the filming of videos, women reported being sexually assaulted and held against their will as they were not allowed to leave. The crimes primarily occurred at San Diego area hotels and rentals.
Four of Pratt’s co-defendants pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, according to the news outlet.
Ruben Andre Garcia was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Matthew Isaac Wolfe is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 31. Theodore Wilfred Gyi and Valorie Moser are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 7.
Special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego office, Stacey Moy, said locating Pratt “is a high priority for the FBI in order to stop him from victimizing anyone else.”
“Michael James Pratt preyed on young women and girls and allegedly coerced or forced them through threats and fraud to participate in pornographic videos,” Moy said in a press release. “He engages in dangerous and deceptive practices wherever he goes, and we will not waver until justice is served.”
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, Randy Grossman, said Wednesday’s announcement “is yet another important step in our commitment to bring Michael Pratt back to San Diego to face these charges and to seek justice for the victims of these crimes.”
“This was a despicable crime that has devastated its victims,” Grossman said in the press release.
The FBI is offering $100,000 for information that leads to Pratt’s arrest.
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Source: www.lawofficer.com