Federal prosecutors were asking a judge to impose nearly 27 years in prison on Michael James Pratt, the New Zealand businessman who once ran the notorious San Diego-based website GirlsDoPorn.com. Pratt has pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, admitting he lured and coerced young women into pornographic shoots under false pretenses.

Pratt’s sentencing took place on Monday, Sept. 8, before U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino. His sentence for Pratt was five years longer than what federal prosecutors asked the court to levy, and that was above federal sentencing guidelines.

From 2009 to 2019, Pratt and his co-conspirators recruited women by advertising “modeling jobs.” Victims were told their sex scenes would be distributed privately overseas and never appear online. In reality, the content was uploaded to GirlsDoPorn and spread across major tube sites like Pornhub, generating millions of dollars in revenue.

Court filings describe how women were misled, trapped in hotel rooms, pressured to sign misleading contracts, and threatened with lawsuits or canceled flights if they refused to perform. Some reported violent sexual assault, forced drug or alcohol use, and harassment long after the videos were posted.

In 2020, 22 women won a $13 million civil judgment against Pratt and his company. But by then, Pratt had already fled the United States mid-trial, liquidated assets, and gone into hiding. He was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list before being captured in Spain in December 2022 and extradited in 2024.

Pratt’s sentencing follows years of prosecutions against his associates:

• Ruben Andre Garcia, the main on-camera performer, received 20 years.
• Matthew Isaac Wolfe, Pratt’s business partner, was sentenced to 14 years.
• Alexander Brian Foster received a one-year sentence for making a video intended to expose and harass victims.

In a sentencing memorandum, Pratt’s attorney Brian White argued for a lighter 17-year term, citing Pratt’s troubled upbringing, ADHD, and alleged missteps by his co-defendants. The filing even suggested the broader porn industry was “exploitative and dehumanizing,” while also minimizing Pratt’s direct responsibility.

Letters from Pratt’s family painted him as a boy damaged by an abusive father. Pratt himself submitted a letter claiming that three years in custody had given him time to reflect:

“Trying to understand things from other points of view has given me insight into how some victims were really affected by these videos,” he wrote.

His legal team also submitted nearly 100 certificates from prison courses, ranging from “Anger Management” to “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” to “Doing Time With Jesus.”

Yet this is the message he sent to one of his victims. Let’s never forget that.

Victims and their advocates argue that Pratt continues to deflect blame rather than accept accountability. Women testified to being barricaded in rooms, assaulted, or coerced under threats. Some say they were later harassed by strangers or disowned by their families once the videos spread online.

As one survivor testified during the civil trial:

“There were a few points where I was just like please, I need to stop, I need to stop, because it was just so much pain. My voice was just not heard at all.”

Another victim, former Miss Teen Colorado Kristy Althaus, alleged she was held captive, drugged, and raped during a 9–10 hour shoot. Pratt allegedly threatened her family when she refused to return, texting: “You better be here by noon… or your graveyard.”

Prosecutors argue Pratt was the “ringleader in a wide-ranging sex-trafficking conspiracy” who built a fortune on deception and abuse, and that his years as a fugitive only underscore his lack of remorse.

Judge Sammartino had to weigh the government’s request for 260 months (nearly 22 years) against the defense’s plea for leniency.

For many victims, however, no sentence will undo the damage.

“Justice would look like real accountability, real consequences, and protections for others,” one woman told reporters. “Until then, it feels more like a headline than healing.”