SAN DIEGO — GirlsDoPorn (GDP) recruiter and male talent Ruben Andre "Dre" Garcia was sentenced yesterday to 20 years after pleading guilty to sex trafficking charges against him in the case that also involves the site’s fugitive owner, Michael Pratt, and others.
Garcia had pleaded guilty in federal court on December 20, 2020 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill L. Burkhardt to the charges of Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion, and Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion.
Garcia will be eligible “for supervised release from 10 years following the completion of his custodial term,” reported the San Diego Fox affiliate.
A number of Garcia’s victims spoke before sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino, during the hearing, which had been delayed since February 12.
Judge Sammartino described Garcia as “without question,” one of “the leaders behind the scheme she described as ‘malicious’ and ‘callous,’ and said the victims were treated as ‘disposable commodities,’” Fox 5 reported, adding that her sentence exceeded the terms proposed by both the prosecution and the defense.
Garcia’s boss, GDP owner Michael Pratt, has been a fugitive from U.S. federal authorities since late 2019 and was last presumed to be in his native New Zealand over a year ago. Pratt left the country before the October 2019 trial for the civil lawsuit filed by 22 former models suing GDP for fraud.
The civil trial — which was decided against Pratt and GDP with a multimillion-dollar award to the plaintiffs — was overshadowed during the testimony phase by the unsealing of a parallel criminal case and FBI investigation against Pratt and his associates and employees for conspiracy and sex trafficking.
The federal indictment, issued January 2019, named Pratt, Garcia, Matthew Wolfe, Theodore "Teddy" Gyi, Valorie Moser and Amberlyn Clark as co-conspirators in the GDP operation.
“This defendant was a key player in a despicable fraud that has devastated the victims,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer in December 2020. “We will continue to fight for justice for them, and to prevent others from becoming victims of these schemes.”
For XBIZ’s ongoing coverage of the GDP case, click here.
