On August 28, three former officials of Backpage.com, the former website notorious for facilitating prostitution and sex trafficking, were sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona for offenses arising from their promotion of prostitution and associated money laundering.
Michael Lacey, 76, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, the founder Backpage.com, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release, plus $3 million in fines on one count of money laundering. Scott Spear, 73, of Phoenix, Executive Vice President, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release on more than a dozen counts of facilitation of prostitution, about 20 money laundering counts, one count of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act— a federal law barring the use of interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution in violation of state laws— and 17 counts of violating the Travel Act. John “Jed” Brunst, 72, of Phoenix, Chief Financial Officer, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release on one count of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act and more than 30 money laundering counts. The Court ordered that all defendants turn themselves in to the U.S. Marshals Service by noon on September 11 to start serving their sentences. These sentences follow the convictions of various other members of Backpage.com leadership.
Backpage.com was the internet’s leading forum for prostitution advertisements from September 2010, when Craigslist shut down its prostitution ad section, until April 2018, when the United States seized Backpage.com.
At the November 2023 trial, evidence showed that the Backpage.com owners knowingly promoted prostitution through various marketing strategies. For example, they engaged in a reciprocal link program with an independent web forum that permitted sex buyers to post reviews of prostitution acts with specific women. Additionally, they attempted to sanitize ads to feign plausible deniability by using an automated filter and human moderators to remove terms known to indicate sex-for-money, while still allowing the ads to be posted.
Over the life of the conspiracy, Lacey, Spear, and Brunst earned more than $500 million. In attempts to preserve the millions, the men then laundered the money through numerous shell companies they created in multiple foreign countries.
The CSE Institute applauds the persistent and arduous efforts of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, FBI Phoenix, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, and the other cooperating law enforcement agencies for their collaborative efforts in holding the people behind Backpage.com accountable for their crimes. Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer who represented a victim in the case, said in an emailed statement that Backpage.com will be known as “one of the most serious offenders” of online sex trafficking in the United States. McCawley said, “The sentencing of its founder and those he worked closely with, who damaged countless lives, sends a clear and much-needed message that individuals who facilitate online trafficking will be held accountable.”
“[These] sentences should serve as a stark reminder that the Criminal Division and its law enforcement partners are committed to protecting victims and following the money to unmask those who exploit human beings for financial gain,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
We encourage other law enforcement agencies to note that “following the money,” or the demand, is an effective way to reduce commercial sexual exploitation. After all, this idea comports with the basic economic theory that supply and distribution follow demand, and therefore aids in eliminating the commercial sex trade in a more effective and less harmful way.
The CSE Institute advocates for the Equality Model, which seeks to reduce the demand for commercial sex by criminalizing sex buyers and traffickers and decriminalizing prostituted people. The four pillars of the Equality Model are: (1) decriminalization of the person who is selling sex, (2) criminalization of sex buyers and facilitators, (3) educating the public about the harms of prostitution, and (4) funded, holistic exit services for victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.