Spanish police arrest porn company owner on FBI’s Most Wanted list

Spanish authorities last week arrested one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted fugitives — the owner of a U.S.-based pornography production company accused of child sex trafficking and production of child porn, among other offenses. 

Michael James Pratt, 40, was arrested Wednesday in Madrid by Spanish National Police, according to the FBI. He is being held in Spain pending extradition.

“The capture of Michael Pratt is an example of how the FBI will pursue justice beyond U.S. borders — you can run but you can’t hide,” Stacey Moy, special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego Field Office, said in a press release.

Mr. Pratt was wanted on conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; production of child pornography; sex trafficking of a minor and by force, fraud and coercion; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and criminal forfeiture, according to his FBI Most Wanted poster.

Mr. Pratt, a New Zealand citizen, was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list in September.

He is the owner of pornography company GirlsDoPorn, a now-defunct business that went offline after 22 women won a $13 million lawsuit against Mr. Pratt and other employees in January 2020, according to tech news site Ars Technica. 

The outlet also reported that Mr. Pratt is facing child sex charges for allegedly flying a 16-year-old girl to participate in a pornographic video.

Multiple key players at GirlsDoPorn have been convicted of federal sex crimes since the lawsuit in 2020.

In 2021, adult film performer and producer Ruben Andre Garcia was given a 20-year sentence for conspiring to recruit women to appear in sex videos for adult websites using force, fraud and coercion, according to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California.   

In July, Matthew Isaac Wolfe pleaded guilty in the same federal court for his role in recruiting women under false pretenses for pornography, according to federal prosecutors.

Cameraman Theodore “Teddy” Wilfred Gyi and bookkeeper Valorie Moser pleaded guilty in January and April 2021, respectively, to the same charges as Wolfe. Gyi, Moser and Wolfe are awaiting sentencing.

The attorney’s office said that GirlsDoPorn ran a scheme in which the company lied to young women, telling them the sex videos they were being recruited for would never appear online.