Porn website owner who fled San Diego in 2019 lands on FBI’s 10 most wanted list
Federal officials announced Wednesday that Michael James Pratt, the pornographic website boss at the center of a federal sex-trafficking prosecution, has been added to the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives list.
The 39-year-old New Zealand native is the first person in 25 years to make the list from the FBI’s San Diego field office. As part of his addition to the list, authorities doubled the previous reward for information leading to his arrest to $100,000.
Pratt joins a list that contains five murder suspects, a sixth man wanted in a murder-for-hire attempt, the alleged top leader of the MS-13 gang in Honduras and a Bulgarian woman suspected of running a $4-billion cryptocurrency fraud.
Stacey Moy, special agent in charge of the local FBI office, said at a Wednesday news conference that Pratt met the requirements to be added to the list because he is a “very significant public danger” and authorities “need the public’s help in reaching where he might be located — somewhere, someone out there knows where this individual is at.”
Matthew Isaac Wolfe pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court. His business partner, GirlsDoPorn owner Michael James Pratt, remains a fugitive.
Pratt came to San Diego from New Zealand in 2012. He started the pornography website GirlsDoPorn, which featured women appearing in their first adult videos.
“According to our allegations, Pratt used force, fraud and coercion to recruit hundreds of young adult women, most in their late teens, and at least one minor victim,” U.S. Atty. Randy Grossman said.
Pratt fled San Diego in 2019 during a civil trial in San Diego Superior Court in which his business of accused of using false and misleading claims — and sometimes drugs and alcohol — to coerce young women into performing sex acts on camera in luxury San Diego hotel suites.
The judge in that case found in favor of the 22 women who had sued Pratt and his GirlsDoPorn partners, handing down a $12.7-million civil judgment.
A federal warrant for Pratt’s arrest was issued in November 2019 on sex trafficking conspiracy charges after he’d slipped away from the home where he’d been living in the Meadow Hills community north of Escondido.
L.A. couple facing prison for stealing $18 million in a pandemic relief scam took a private jet to the Balkans and vanished into a posh town on the Mediterranean.
Pratt’s four co-defendants have already pleaded guilty in the federal case.
According to federal prosecutors and evidence presented in the civil case, the victims were recruited for modeling jobs, then coerced into having sex on camera through promises the videos wouldn’t be made public, but would go to private DVD collections overseas. Instead, the videos were widely disseminated on the GirlsDoPorn network of sites and beyond.
Victims said they were plied with alcohol and cannabis before being rushed through signing a contract, which they were not allowed to read or obtain copies of. Some said they were sexually assaulted, held against their will or threatened if they asked to stop.
Prosecutors allege the subscription pornography site generated more than $17 million in revenue. Assistant U.S. Atty. Alexandra Foster said Wednesday that Pratt “has access to significant funds.”
Authorities have said Pratt “has the financial means to be anywhere around the world,” is receiving support from others and has ties to multiple countries, including Australia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Singapore, Japan, Chile, Croatia and France.
Police are investigating whether Myles Sanderson killed his brother.
The last person from the FBI’s San Diego office to make the 10 Most Wanted list was drug lord Ramon Arellano Félix in 1997. He was removed in 2002 after being killed in a shootout in Mexico.
Anyone with information about Pratt’s whereabouts, or any potential additional victims of the GirlsDoPorn scheme, are asked to contact the FBI at (800) CALL-FBI, or tips.fbi.gov.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
