MADRID — Michael Pratt, owner and operator of the shuttered GirlsDoPorn website and notorious fugitive from U.S. justice, has been captured in Madrid, Spain, according to a statement released by the FBI today.
According to the FBI, Pratt — one of the law enforcement agency’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” since 2021 — was arrested Wednesday in Madrid by Spanish authorities and is being held pending extradition to the U.S.
Pratt’s capture was requested by U.S. authorities through an Interpol Red Notice in a 19-count indictment for “sex trafficking, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments in connection with the operation of the GirlsDoPorn adult website.”
Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy of the FBI’s San Diego field office said, “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. Thank you to our determined FBI San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force and to our federal and international partners for their commitment to making sure that Michael Pratt is brought to justice.”
SAC Moy also thanked the Spanish National Police, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for their coordination in the arrest, and the public for its assistance.
The FBI noted that Pratt was the 529th person to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, originally established in 1950.
A Disgraced Webmaster on the Run
Pratt, a New Zealand national, escaped the U.S. before federal charges against GirlsDoPorn and its employees were unsealed in 2019.
The January 2019 federal indictment against the site’s principals named Pratt, male talent and scout Ruben Andre “Dre” Garcia, Wolfe and three others as co-conspirators in the GDP operation.
Pratt remained a fugitive from 2019 until his arrest on Wednesday, and was eventually named one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals. In early September, the FBI placed him on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and doubled the reward for information leading to his arrest from $50,000 to $100,000.
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives page devoted to Pratt summarized the case as follows: “From approximately 2012 to 2019, Michael James Pratt and others allegedly participated in a conspiracy to recruit young adult and minor women to engage in commercial sex acts by force, fraud and coercion. Pratt and a co-conspirator owned and operated a pornography production company and online pornography websites, ‘GirlsDoPorn’ and ‘GirlsDoToys.’ Pratt and his co-conspirators allegedly recruited young women from around the United States and Canada by posting false internet advertisements for clothed modeling jobs, which the victims later discovered were pornographic productions.”
Pratt, the posting continued, “also allegedly paid other young women working at his and his co-conspirators' direction to act as references and provide false assurances to the women that, if they filmed a pornographic video, the video would not be posted online. Some women were allegedly not permitted to leave the shooting locations until the videos were completed, others were allegedly forced to perform sex acts they had declined to perform, and some women were allegedly sexually assaulted.”
The bureau also encouraged tipsters who had information concerning Pratt to contact the local FBI office or the nearest American embassy or consulate.
The full FBI statement concerning Michale Pratt's capture can be accessed here.
For XBIZ's ongoing coverage of the GDP case, click here.