GirlsDoPorn owners 'planned to flee the country and impersonated journalists'

GirlsDoPorn videogrpaher Matthew Wolfe is seeking to be released from jail on bail, but federal prosecutors say evidence seized from the porn site's offices suggest that he could be a flight risk, if freed 

As the FBI was closing in on their criminal enterprise, owners of the notorious California-based website GirlsDoPorn were planning to flee to one of the countries not bound by extradition treaties with the US, and plotted to harass and intimidate their victims, according to newly released documents. 

In October 2019, federal agents raided the porn site's offices in San Diego, seizing documents and material evidence against GirlsDoPorn operators Matthew Wolfe and Michael Pratt. 

A day after the search, Wolfe, Pratt and two staffers, including adult film actor Andre Garcia, were charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. 

Pratt has since gone on the run, possibly returning to his native New Zealand. He is considered a fugitive by the FBI. 

In January, a judge found Wolfe and Pratt liable for fraud and breach of contract for lying to women about how their explicit videos would be distributed, and ordered them to pay just under $13million in damages to 22 victims. 

In January, a judge found GirlsDoPorn operators liable for fraud and breach of contract for lying to women, and ordered them to pay just under $13million

In the civil lawsuit against GirlsDoPorn and its operators, the women said that they had applied for modeling jobs. They were flown to San Diego from their home towns where they were put up in hotel rooms before being told they would be making sex videos, for which they were paid $5,000. 

Wolfe, GirlsDoPorn's chief videogrpaher, has been in jail from the time of his arrest last fall. 

He has recently filed a motion seeking to be released on bail, citing his mild sleep apnea a risk factor for contracting COVID-19 behind bars, as Vice first reported. 

In late April, federal prosecutors filed their response opposing to Wolfe's request, in which they argued that as a citizen of New Zealand with in-depth knowledge of cryptocurrency and a suspected access to hundreds of thousands of dollars, he is a flight risk, and that if freed, he would 'obstruct justice and intimidate prospective witnesses...'

The document obtained by Vice goes on to list some of the evidence seized during the raid on GirlsDoPorn's' headquarters as a way to support the prosecution's opposition to Wolfe's release.

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According to the filing, FBI agents found a chart inside the office listing countries that do not extradite people to the US.

'The chart indicates whether each country had on-line banking and whether citizens of New Zealand, like [Wolfe], could obtain a visa,' the document stated.

According to the prosecution, if Wolfe were to flee to his native New Zealand, where his fiance and her children stayed for an extended visit last winter, 'it would take years to extradite him back to the US.'

During the raid in October 2019, federal agents also found evidence of efforts to harass and intimidate the victims of GirlsDoPorn and their lawyers.

GirlDoPorn owner Michael Pratt, a New Zealand native like Wolfe, in June 2019 had gone on the run and remains at large

One item was a video scripted titled, '22 Wh***s + 5 Shady Lawyers VS GirlsDoPorn,' with the subheading, 'Share and spread this video as far and wide as possible.'

Brian Holm, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against Pratt and Wolfe, told Vice that GirlsDoPorn operatives in November digitally inserted his face into a pornographic video featuring male actors and spread it on social media. 

Harassers also allegedly targeted his wife and baby daughter.   

A search of the office also yielded a phone list with the victims' names and numbers, revealing a campaign to extract information from them by posing as a journalist.

On the back of the list was a handwritten script for impersonating a reporter, which read, 'Hi My name is [******}, I'm a journalist from LA. I'm calling in regard to the girlsdoporn case. I've heard your [sic] related to the case & curious to get a comment if you have the spare time.'

Federal prosecutors noted that after Pratt went on the run in June of last year, Wolfe allegedly wired him more than $5,000.

Wolfe has allegedly maintained a Bitcoin wallet and has been handing cryptocurrency for years.

A week after Wolfe's arrest, $250,000 was deposited into a bank account opened in the name of one of his fiancee's children, the court document stated.

'Defendant has no reason to remain in the United States,' prosecutors argued. 'He is a citizen of New Zealand with no right to live or work in the United States. He could live anywhere. He owes millions of dollars to a subset of his victims. For the reasons previously stated, and in consideration of the new evidence below, the United States urges the Court to deny the motion.' 

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