Michael Pratt- California- 2019 (CAPTURED!!!!!)

(Above photo credit: fbi.gov website archive)

Fugitive Profile as of September 22nd, 2020: (based on FBI.gov wanted poster)


Full Name: Michael James Pratt
Aliases: Michael Pratt, Michal J. Pratt, Mark
Date(s) of Birth Used: November 10, 1982
Place of Birth: New Zealand
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 6'0" (183 centimeters)
Weight: 209 pounds (95 kilograms)
Sex: Male
Race: White
Nationality: New Zealander
Languages: English
Scars and Marks: Pratt may have a tattoo on his left arm.
Reward: The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of Michael James Pratt.
Remarks: Pratt has ties to or may visit: New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Singapore, Japan, Chile, Croatia, and France.
TIPS: If you have any information concerning this person, please contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. Anonymous tips can also be submitted online to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov

UPDATE: As of October 13th , 2021, anyone with information on this fugitive's whereabouts can also can also call or text "In Pursuit" on the Investigation Discovery channel at 833-378-7783 and/or submit a tip at the show's website: www.InPursuitTips.com

UPDATE #2: On Wednesday, September 7th, 2022, Pratt was added to the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted list. The reward for his capture is now $100,000.


From vice.com:

The founder of Girls Do Porn is a wanted fugitive and the FBI says it will extradite him if he is found hiding abroad.

Michael Pratt is the ringleader of sex crime operation Girls Do Porn, a porn production company that coerced women into having sex on video and lying to them about how the videos would be distributed. According to testimony from his co-conspirator Matthew Wolfe, Pratt may have fled to New Zealand during a recently-ended civil trial where he and his associates were accused by 22 women of fraud and coercion.

“Michael James Pratt is a fugitive. We are attempting to locate him," Kelly Thornton, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego, told Motherboard. "If he were found outside the U.S., we would seek his return. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the FBI.”

The judge in the civil trial ruled in favor of the women, ordering Girls Do Porn to pay them nearly $13 million in damages. But in October, in the middle of the trial, Pratt and his co-conspirators, including lead videographer Wolfe and actor Ruben Garcia were charged with federal counts of sex trafficking.

Pratt, who is originally from New Zealand, operated a scheme that, according to the women's lawyers, coerced hundreds of women into shooting porn. Most notably, he and his employees told them that the videos would only be sold to private collectors in Australia and New Zealand, and that they'd never be seen online. But the videos were posted to Pratt's website and promoted on huge, free porn sites like Pornhub. The viral spread of the videos, without the women's consent, ruined many of their lives.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Foster told the New Zealand Herald that New Zealand police have been cooperating with the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She wouldn't confirm whether they believed Pratt was in New Zealand, but did say that if he's found to be in the country, extradition would be sought.

In the meantime, authorities in New Zealand are spreading this image of Pratt in hopes that someone will provide a tip to his whereabouts:

"The tentative ruling does not affect the criminal case. The government's burden of proof in the criminal case is 'beyond a reasonable doubt,' which is a much higher standard than in this civil lawsuit where the burden of proof is a mere preponderance of the evidence," Girls Do Porn defense lawyers Aaron Sadock and Daniel Kaplan said in a statement to the New Zealand Herald. "The findings of fact in the civil case do not carry over to the criminal case where the government will have to prove the facts under a much more stringent standard."

Throughout the trial, the lawyers for Girls Do Porn argued that the women were adults, and signed paperwork knowing what they were getting into. But their testimonies and extensive evidence presented throughout the 99-day trial showed this was not the case. Girls Do Porn producers offered them alcohol and marijuana, they were denied access to read the contracts they were signing, and deeply mislead about the nature of the operation, from the fact that they'd be having sex on camera to how the videos would spread online.

The full civil ruling, written by San Diego Superior Court judge Kevin Enright who presided over the case, is a 187-page account of the brutal and harrowing ordeals the women targeted by Pratt and his associates went through.

Several testified that they'd tried to escape the shoot. One plaintiff testified that when she tried to leave the hotel room where the porn shoot was taking place, Pratt pushed a chair against the door and refused to move it.

Another of the women emailed Pratt after her family, co-workers, and strangers discovered the video, pleading with him to take it down. His response: "LOL good one."

Last week, a 23rd woman separately filed a lawsuit against Pratt and Girls Do Porn for damages similar to the 22 Jane Does from the previous trial.

“The men placed their camera equipment in front of the hotel room door and were yelling at her as she was locked in a hotel room demanding that she hurry up and sign the contract,” the woman’s attorney, Loren Washburn, said according to NBC 7 in San Diego. Within a few weeks, the video she appeared in was posted online and went viral, Washburn said, circulating in the woman's small, religious community, "leading to harassment, ostracization, and degrading interactions with her peers, friends, and family.”

If Pratt is extradited to the U.S., he faces life in prison.


www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74ekd/fugitive-girls-do-porn-owner-faces-extradition-and-a-new-lawsuit

Additional relevant links: www.cnn.com/2020/01/03/us/fraud-porn-california-12-million-award/index.html

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GirlsDoPorn


Thoughts? Although I can't find his name in San Diego online warrants search I feel it is safe to assume Pratt is still at large as of this posting date (May 28th, 2020), since this is a high-profile case and the overall story has been covered on websites of tv news networks at the very least (hence why I'm placing the manhunt in the fugitives on tv section).

One thing I want to stress here- it's awful what happened to these girls. Not only were they deceived but according to the reference links, both them and their lawyers were doxxed and harassed online. And it seems most if not all were answering modeling or acting type ads and were allegedly turned into unwitting and unpaid porn stars and many had their lives ruined for the moment. However, even if these girls were aspiring adult film actresses, they were still allegedly lied to manipulated and would have had alleged crimes committed against them. I'm not saying you have to approve of the porn industry, which is for the most part a legal industry if you're over 18 and it's valid studios behind the films, but even if the girls were aspiring adult film actresses, it wouldn't have excused crimes done to them.


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