Michael James Pratt, the convicted ringleader of 'GirlsDoPorn,' is now just days away from learning his federal sentence for sex trafficking.
In an effort to influence the court, Pratt and his attorney are presenting him as a man who has reformed behind bars, submitting personal letters and certificates from courses he has completed in prison. Among the submitted exhibits are letters from people who personally knew Pratt when he was younger, as well as family members pleading for leniency.
His mother even wrote that:
Pratt himself, also wrote a letter to the court reflecting on his time in prison:
Pratt’s legal team also highlighted the nearly 100 certificates from Edovo, a learning platform for incarcerated individuals, demonstrating courses he has completed while in prison.
They include "Embracing Unexpected Change," "Doing Time With Jesus," anger management courses, "Media Relations Foundations," marketing classes for various social media platforms, "Augmented Reality Marketing," "Human Trafficking in the United States: The Truth and What You Can Do About It," and even cooking classes such as "Soups" and "Sauces."
The defense uses this to argue that Pratt has been productive and reflective during his incarceration.
By highlighting Pratt’s completed courses and personal growth behind bars, the defense also attempts to minimize Pratt’s leadership role by blaming co-conspirators.
The defense has argued for a lighter sentence, citing Pratt’s childhood, ADHD, and the exploitative nature of the pornography industry.
Despite these efforts to show that he is reforming, the crimes committed under his leadership tell a much darker story.
There is a reason why prosecutors are seeking a 22-year prison sentence, which Judge Janis L. Sammartino is set to announce the final sentence on September 8, 2025, in San Diego.
GirlsDoPorn operated from 2009 to 2020 as a sex trafficking ring posing as a porn studio.
Young women, aged 18 to 22, were recruited under false pretenses, from platforms like Craigslist, targeting those in small towns and college towns. To do this, GirlsDoPorn operated a number of modelling websites, including BeginModeling, ModelingGigs, ModelingWork, and Bubblegum Casting.
These advertisements were for clothed and nude modelling but not pornography.
They include Kristy Althaus, a former beauty pageant contestant and runner-up for Miss Colorado, and Melissa King, crowned Miss Delaware Teen USA in 2013 before she lost her crown because of the scandal.
The women who fell to the trap were then told that they were going to star in adult videos. When they declined, GirlsDoPorn, assured them that the videos would only be sold on DVDs to "private collectors" in Australia and New Zealand, and that no one they knew would ever see those films.
"He said I had to perform a sex scene for 30 minutes, and then I would be paid $5,000," said one plaintiff in court, referring to Pratt or other leader of GirlsDoPorn.
To some of the young women, that amount for just a half-an-hour work was huge.
When they finally agreed, they didn't get what they were promised: they were coerced into long, rough pornographic filming sessions in San Diego hotel rooms, which include boy-girl scene and solo. According to the victims, some of the sex scenes were violent, that many of the women experienced vaginal bleeding, vaginal tearing, and vomiting.
One of the victims said that the male actor forced a paint sponge into her vagina because she was menstruating, just to ensure that the filming can happen.
And if the girls looked not into it, they were forced to do it over and over again.
Once inside the room and the camera running, there was no turning back.
Many were blackmailed and told that they would tell their family about the video if they refused to continue. The door to the exit was often blocked by men so the woman couldn't leave.
The images and videos that they promised would remain private to only a select buyers, were heavily distributed widely on platforms such as Pornhub, where GirlsDoPorn had been a content partner, almost immediately after filming.
Once uploaded to Pornhub, the videos were then widely shared across various adult websites, all of which are freely available to watch.
Not only that, the women were also doxed, with many of the videos circulating online bear their legal names.
As a result of this massive distribution, survivors of the operation reported severe physical and emotional abuse.
While on videos the young women look like they were enjoying the scenes with the 'unknown man,' and also the sex activities they were having with him, they were in fact being trapped in hotel rooms, injured during filming, and lied to about who would ever see the videos.
"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. I said, I can’t go on anymore… At that point I could have said nothing. I could have been mute. My voice was just not heard at all." said one of the victims.
"They put furniture in front of the door, so what was I going to do—jump over the balcony?" said another.
Pratt had been on the run since fleeing the U.S. in 2019 amid a civil trial where 22 victims sued him and his co-conspirators for $22 million, a case the plaintiffs won.
He was arrested in Spain on December 21, 2022, extradited to the U.S., and eventually pleaded guilty to federal sex trafficking charges in June 2025.
Co-conspirators, including Ruben Garcia (main male performer, sometimes director/actor in the videos), Matthew Wolfe (cameraman and partial owner of the production company), and Theodore Gyi (cameraman and production assistant), have already received significant prison sentences.
Garcia receives 20 years, since he was directly involved in most of the sexual scenes with the recruited women. Many court documents and victim testimonies also identify him as the primary male actor during filming.
For the survivors of GirlsDoPorn, Pratt’s attempts at showing remorse may ring hollow.
The trauma they endured, from physical, emotional, and social, can never be undone by certificates or letters.
While Pratt tries to present himself as a changed man, the consequences of his actions continue to resonate through the lives of those he exploited.
As for Pornhub, the website banned GirlsDoPorn and removed its videos from its database in 2019.
On September, the verdict is that, Pratt is sentenced to 27 years in prison for sex trafficking hundreds of women.
"Pratt, the owner and operator of GirlsDoPorn.com and GirlsDoToys.com, built a multimillion-dollar criminal empire by luring young women into pornography through lies, coercion, and manipulation, and then broadcasting their abuse to millions online," wrote a post on the U.S. Department of Justice's website.
40 women urged the court to give Pratt the maximum sentence, with some recalled what they experienced in the dreaded San Diego hotel rooms, where Pratt and his colleagues exploited, coerced, raped, abused and trapped them. Many shared that they suffered aftermath trauma that included suicide attempts; depression, anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, lost of jobs and relationships. They also experienced stalkers and threats and harassment, as well as heavy burden of shame and fear.
Some even went as far as having cosmetic surgery to change their appearance, some changed their names, and some others abused substances and alcohol.
"Pratt was a calculating and cruel predator," said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon.
"He lured young victims, caused others to abuse them on video, and then taunted them for years as they sought to reclaim their names. Afterwards these victims suffered each day the cruelty of the internet and social media. As one victim said today during sentencing, ‘Pratt caused me to fear my own name.’ We as a society failed these women. They were forced to walk alone. But today as they confronted Pratt, they personified courage and grace. They showed everyone what should have been apparent when they first were victimized - they don’t need society’s forgiveness, we need theirs."
Judge Sammartino handed down a longer sentence than the expected 22 years after listening to the victims' statements.
With Pratt receiving the longest sentence so far among his conspirators, some of the women said that they can finally reclaim their lives, standing up tall for the first time in years.
"After today I choose healing. I choose to reclaim the dreams I once had," one of the women said.
"For years I carried shame that never belonged to me…Today I will walk out of this courtroom an empowered woman. You will walk out in shackles," another said.