SAN DIEGO – In a federal criminal complaint that was unsealed yesterday, the owners and two employees of GirlsDoPorn.com were charged with “sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion” as well as conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. The complaint also seeks forfeiture of property owned by the defendants.
“In or about May 2015, within the Southern District of California and elsewhere, defendants Michael James Pratt, Matthew Wolfe, and Ruben Andre Garcia, in and affecting interstate commerce, knowingly did recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, maintain, patronize, and solicit, by any means a person, to wit, Adult Female 1 (“AF-1 “), knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that means of force, threats of force, fraud, coercion, and any combination of such means, will be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act; in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591(a) and (b)(l),” prosecutors wrote in the complaint.
In the forfeiture allegations section of the complaint, prosecutors wrote that upon conviction on the four counts of the indictment, the defendants “shall forfeit… all right, title, and interest in (1) any property, real or personal, used or intended to be used to commit or to facilitate the commission of the offense; (2) any property, real or personal, constituting or derived from, any proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of the offense.”
The scope of the property to be to be forfeited “includes, but is not limited to, (a) any personal property that was used or intended to be used to commit or to facilitate the commission of the offense; and (b) any property, real or personal, constituting or derived from proceeds obtained directly or indirectly as a result of such offense.”
In the complaint, Pratt, Wolfe and Garcia are all charged with all four counts specified in the complaint. The company’s former administrative assistant, Valorie Moser, is charged under only one count of the indictment, the conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.
The allegations in the complaint closely mirror those involved in a civil lawsuit originally filed in 2016 against Pratt, Wolfe, Garcia and the company itself. The civil case is ongoing.
According to a report by East County Today, Garcia was arrested on Wednesday, while Wolfe was taken into custody by immigration officials on Tuesday, then transferred to federal custody. Moser’s arraignment is scheduled for tomorrow, while Pratt, who left the country near the start of the civil trial, is now considered a fugitive.
The maximum penalty under the four counts in the complaint is life in prison, along with a fine of up to $250,000.
