FBI offers $10K reward to find fugitive porn boss facing trafficking and child exploitation charges

The FBI is offering up to a $10,000 reward for information on Michael James Pratt, a fugitive facing charges and accusations of sex trafficking, child pornography, fraud, coercion, and sexual assault in connection with his website “GirlsDoPorn.”

Between 2012 and 2019, Pratt, a 37-year-old from New Zealand, and others allegedly ran a scheme where they would deceive young women and minors about potential modeling work and coerce them into making porn instead.

According to the FBI, Pratt and his conspirators would allegedly post ads about clothed modeling gigs, only to reveal that they were actually for porn videos. Then, the women were told if they agreed to be in videos, their identities would remain anonymous and the videos would go straight to DVD and not be posted online. Pratt also allegedly paid other women to help recruit his victims.

Next, according to evidence presented a civil trial against Pratt and his outfit, the women and girls would be pushed to sign a document relinquishing their publishing rights to the footage. They were given drugs and alcohol, and Pratt allegedly wouldn’t let them leave until finishing certain videos, and coerced others into performing sex acts they didn’t want to do. Some of the individuals were also allegedly sexually assaulted, while others had their identities discovered from the online videos and were harassed by  trolls, leading to additional trauma.  

Last October, Pratt and his associates were indicted on a host of civil charges in state court, and a $12.7 million civil judgment was handed down this January, though by then Pratt was gone. As part of that judgment, the 22 women who helped bring the case were given back rights to their image, and had the videos of them taken down on Pratt’s sites.

All told, the FBI says Pratt’s network of sites made upwards of $17 million in revenue.

The Bureau is urging anyone with information about Pratt to send it through the FBI’s digital tip line, call their local FBI field office, or notify their nearest American embassy or consulate.