Michael Pratt, GirlsDoPorn Ringleader, Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison
If you or someone you know is struggling, The Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To text with a trained helper, text SAVE to 741741.Judge Janis Sammartino sentenced Michael James Pratt, the owner and operator of the GirlsDoPorn sex trafficking ring, to 27 years in federal prison on Monday.Pratt masterminded GirlsDoPorn until 2019, when he and multiple of his co-conspirators were charged with federal counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. His victims number in the hundreds, according to the FBI and court documents.Its quite clear that without you none of this would have occurred," Judge Sammartino said prior to issuing his sentence. The women here today and hundreds of others would not have been victimized except for your direction... You led the conspiracy, you supervised it, you managed it.In addition to the 27 years, the judge ordered 10 years of supervision. Prosecutors has asked the court for 22 years. Judge Sammartino also forbade Pratt from contacting any victims, ordered that he would not be allowed to consume adult material or go to a store that primarily sells it, along with several more restrictions and provisions.In federal court on Monday in San Diego, Pratt gave a short apology before the court before victims started giving statements. "It was never my intention to hurt anybody," he said, adding that he would never have come to this country to make a website.One victim said she never feels safe, never feels like her family is safe, and worries for her school-aged son. Your crimes were never a single mistake, Michael. It was a pattern, she said. What you did was not a fleeting act. It was a lasting scar. Another said her children had their photos stolen from social media and reposted with links to this video.Are you a victim of GirlsDoPorn? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at sam.404. Otherwise, send me an email at sam@404media.co.Another victim said she has lived a double life for a decade, outwardly holding it together while inwardly drowning, she said. She lost her marriage, friendships, and a sense of control over her own life, she said. She asked the judge for the maximum possible sentence.The scariest part is the internet doesnt forget and every day Im reminded of the pieces of me that were stolen, another said. Justice on paper doesnt undo what was done to me.He turned my pain into profit, my life into currency, said another victim, before turning to Pratt directly, sitting to her right. I want you to look at me, she said to him. Im not your victim. Im your reckoning. She said she altered her face to not be recognized. My reflection may be different, but the girl you broke still lives inside of me. She told Pratt to look around the courtroom as the survivors gathered there. You thought we would break. Instead we linked arms.Kristy Althaus, a victim who was targeted by Pratt when she was a senior in high school and had her life upended as she was doxed online after her Miss Teen Colorado pageant victory brought her intense media scrutiny, said in her statement she is disgusted by Pratt. My interaction with you wasnt hours or days or months, it was years of terrorism, she said. Althaus is suing Pornhub and its parent company Aylo for hosting the videos and partnering with GirlsDoPorn.Ahead of Sentencing, GirlsDoPorn Ringleader Michael Pratt Attempts to Seem ReformedIn sentencing memos and exhibits, Pratts attorney paints of picture that points at Pratts abusive father, his ADHD, his co-conspirators, the entire pornography industry, and the victims themselves.404 MediaSamantha ColeSeveral mentioned being trapped in the hotel rooms, being forced to reshoot the videos when they cried out or bled. It didnt take long for me to realize the quickest way out of that room was to do and say whatever they wanted, one said, claiming Pratt controlled the situation and what they did and said on camera, including re-doing testimonials. I have no doubt Pratts cutting room floor is filled with some of the most gut wrenching footage imaginable.I dont think you expected to see me again, one said directly to Pratt. But now the tables have turned... Now what used to be my face all over the media is now yours.He fueled it, he enjoyed it and he would do it again if he had the chance, another said. She asked the judge for permission to address Pratt directly, then turned sharply to face him. Hey pedophile, she said. You chose to get me a birthday cake so the whole world would know I would be the next youngest victim.Another victim said she considered suicide. There are nights I didnt think I would survive the pain. I felt so numb and so powerless. I thought the only solution was to take my own life. Several victims mentioned attempting suicide over the years. A different victim said during her testimony that 15 women that they know of have died since filming with GirlsDoPorn.One said after falling victim to Pratts enterprise, she turned to alcohol and heroin. I have died three times and have been brought back to life, she said. Her roommates in college blackmailed and harassed her using the videos. She said she plans to never marry or have children, and cant be intimate physically with anyone, and never plans to be again. This wasnt just a video. This was my body and identity ... you destroyed years I can never get back. But that Im here speaking proves you will never win. [...] You ran. I didnt. We had to face the world every day.The mother of one of Pratts now-deceased victims stood before the judge. The mother had only just learned about GirlsDoPorn, she said, and her daughters involvement, in May. Her daughter, Isabelle, started becoming distant from family and friends in late 2017 and began to disappear, becoming withdrawn and quiet. Her mother said she didnt understand why at the time. As a mother I love my child no matter what, no matter where, she said, but she said she thinks shame kept her daughter from confiding in anyone. Isabelle died by overdose in 2023. I can still hear her speaking to me, her mother said. Her mother said she still hears her daughters voice. [She says,] I was tortured, lied to, hunted after. Earth was hard and I miss you.She Turned Ghost White: How a Ragtag Group of Friends Tracked Down a Sex Trafficking RingleaderMichael Pratt hid a massive sex trafficking ring in plain sight on PornHub. On the run from the FBI, an unexpected crew of ex-military, ex-intelligence officers and a lawyer tracked him down using his love of rare sneakers and crypto. For the first time, the group tells their story.404 MediaSamantha ColeMany more women nearly 40, for more than four hours spoke before the judge on Monday. Their stories were all similar and all horrific, recounting sexual assault, rape and lies by Pratts associates, isolation and rejection from their families, torment that extended to their loved ones, trauma that causes them to feel like theyre never safe, night terrors, futures stolen and dreams crushed, relationships destroyed, and online harassment that still continues to this day. You made me give up on my life, and now I just exist, one said.In the final statement of the day, read by a prosecutor, the victim said she suffered a PTSD-related seizure when she landed in San Diego. On the day her GirlsDoPorn video was shot nine years ago, after being picked up at the airport by a woman representing the organization and taken to a hotel, she was brutally raped for nearly nine hours.GirlsDoPorn videos were all over the internet, massively popular in part because of the women Pratt and his team primarily targeted: usually college-aged, completely inexperienced in the porn industry, and newly legal adults. In at least one case, a woman blew out the candles on a birthday cake Pratt bought her so he could demonstrate to the camera shed just turned 18, she said. Pratt and his co-conspirators lied to the women they recruited, telling them they would just be modeling." Pratt would fly the women to San Diego where shoots happened in hotel rooms. Once in the rooms, many of the women reported the doors were locked, they were assaulted before and during the video shoots, and were told their return flights home would be canceled if they didnt go through with hours of painful sexual assault.Pratt and the GirlsDoPorn operators promised the women that the videos wouldnt be seen by anyone except private collectors in Australia and New Zealand. Instead, Pratt and his colleagues posted the videos to massive porn tube sites including Pornhub, where GirlsDoPorn videos received millions of views and reached the families, friends, and schoolmates of the women in them. Many of the women were ostracized from their communities, pushed out of the job market, lost relationships, and some said they considered self-harm and suicide.Many women said GirlsDoPorn operatives also rushed them through signing consent forms and legally-dense contracts and some claim they were plied with alcohol and drugs including marijuana and Xanax before being given a contract. The contracts didnt even mention GirlsDoPorn by name, a conscious choice by the operators; GirlsDoPorn was already widely known by the time a lot of them were recruited. Pratt continued operating GirlsDoPorn after 22 women sued him for $12 million in a case that went to trial in June 2019. The women won that case in 2020.Right up until the last minute before the operation was federally indicted, the main actor in the videos, Andre Garcia, was still recruiting, as Pratts childhood friend and business partner Matthew Wolfe testified in October 2019. Pratt was still operating it from on the lam after fleeing the US in mid-2019, after the civil case went to trial and right before the federal sex trafficking charges came down.Pratt was on the FBIs Most Wanted list for years. Private investigators involved in the case tracked Pratt down in Spain in 2022. He was arrested by Spanish authorities in December 2022 and extradited to the US, where hes been in custody since. After initially pleading not guilty in March 2024, Pratt flipped his plea to guilty in June 2025.Michael James Pratt, you had the power to control the narrative. For many years, you have tried to silence us, but today, it is our turn to set this record straight, one of the victims said before the court on Monday. You are evil, you are a predator, you are a rapist, and this is who you are. Your ego is too big to believe you would ever get caught, but karma comes around and it will haunt you now the book of your life is in its final chapter: a miserable one. I will continue to stand with my head high, prosper and live with gratitude, as your time is spent behind bars. It is your turn now to suffer, as we lock you away from all the beauty this world has to offer.Almost all of Pratts co-conspirators have already been sentenced. Garcia was sentenced to 20 years in prison on June 14, 2021; Theodore Gyi, the primary cameraman for the ring, was sentenced to four years on November 9, 2022 and ordered to pay victims $100,000; Wolfe was sentenced to 14 years on March 20, 2024; Valorie Moser, the operations office manager who recruited women and repeated the lie about DVD-exclusive video releases, is set for sentencing on September 12, 2025 and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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