PHOENIX, Ariz. – When Backpage.com co-founder Michael Lacey was sentenced to prison earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice noted in its press release that a federal judge in Phoenix had “sentenced the three owners of Backpage, a prostitution website, for offenses arising from their promotion of and associated money laundering.”
What the DOJ didn’t highlight much in its release is the fact Lacey’s conviction on money laundering charges was part of a trial in which the jury returned no verdict at all on 85 other charges, which included all the charges in the indictment which pertained directly to prostitution.
To me, this is a little like saying you’ve brought down Al Capone for “charges arising out of racketeering,” when in fact you’ve convicted him for tax evasion.
As the DOJ noted in their press release, Lacey and the other two men sentenced this week, Scott Spear and John Brunst, were found guilty by a federal jury of “one count of international concealment money laundering; Spear of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act, 17 counts of violating the Travel Act, money laundering conspiracy, and 10 counts of concealment money laundering; and Brunst of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act, money laundering conspiracy, 10 counts of concealment money laundering, and five counts of international promotional money laundering.”
While Backpage has been labeled a “prostitution website” by the government for the purposes of this trial, those of us old enough to have visited the site prior to its seizure in 2018 recall there being just a little more to the site than promotion of prostitution. It was, in fact, one of the biggest classified ad sites on the web, with sections covering everything you typically associate with classified ads, from used musical instruments for sale to furniture that was free to anyone willing and able to come fetch it from the curb by its former owner’s house.
The other thing the DOJ didn’t mention in its press release, unsurprisingly, is the mistrial US District Judge Susan Brnovich declared in the case in 2021, when the prosecution seemingly couldn’t refrain from talking about child sex trafficking claims made against Backpage, when there were no charges relating to child sex trafficking in the indictment at issue – and despite Judge Brnovich warning them to knock it off. (Related tip: When a federal judge tells you to stop doing something in her courtroom, it’s probably best to stop doing that thing.)
The DOJ press release also somewhat glosses over what happened to another of the men charged in the case, Lacey’s Backpage co-founder James Larkin. The DOJ observed in its release that Larkin “died on July 31, 2023, before trial began.” That’s accurate enough, seeing as how Larkin did commit suicide on that day, but somehow leaving it at “died” feels like burying the lede on the nature of Larkin’s demise.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, the head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said the “defendants thought they could hide their illicit proceeds by laundering the funds through shell companies in foreign countries. But they were wrong.”
“Their sentences should serve as a stark reminder that the Criminal Division and its law enforcement partners are committed to protecting victims and following the money to unmask those who exploit human beings for financial gain,” Argentieri added.
That’s all true enough, in this case. But considering the fact the government began targeting Backpage close to 10 years ago and what they have to show for their decade of effort and expense (thus far, at least) is five sentencings of human defendants (Carl Ferrer and Dan Hyer having pleaded guilty in 2018), the seizure of the website and a large fine for a corporate defendant, I think it’s fair to ask: From an anti-human trafficking and anti-prostitution perspective, was it worth the effort, the time and the expense, not to mention the death by suicide of a defendant?
Has the demise of Backpage led to a significant decrease in human trafficking? Based on the numbers thrown around by activists and the politicians they lobby, it’s hard to imagine it has led to any decrease in these crimes, at all.
According to a 2023 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2021, “a total of 2,027 persons were referred to U.S. attorneys for human trafficking offenses” which represented “a 49% increase from the 1,360 persons referred in 2011.”
If you look at the human trafficking-related data from BJS, what you’ll see is a steady increase in each of the categories they track between 2011 and 2021, as shown in the graph below:
Seeing as how Backpage closed its adult ads section in January 2017, I think it’s safe to say Backpage isn’t responsible for any of the increases seen between that date and the end of 2021. One can reasonably argue that an increased focus on the crime has led to an increase in the number of charges and defendants, but that point alone offers zero evidence in favor of believing the takedown of Backpage has reduced the frequency with which the crime has been committed or alleged in the years since the site’s closure.
None of this is to say Backpage wasn’t part of the problem, or that I have some deep sympathy for the company’s leaders or founders who were tried and convicted. But if the point of all this was to combat and deter human trafficking and sex trafficking, and that’s also the explanation for why Congress created the FOSTA/SESTA carveout to Section 230’s safe harbor provisions, shouldn’t we be seeing more impact from the changes in law (and law enforcement) by now?
It seems a question worth asking, at least.
Person in handcuffs photo by Kindel Media from Pexels
