What has been looming for weeks has now become reality: after the founder of the scandalous porn company fled, the responsible court in San Diego, USA, has frozen the company’s assets and ordered its liquidation. Whether the 22 victims of GirlsDoPorn can ever be adequately compensated, however, is unclear for the time being.
As VAN has already reported, the lawsuit against the operators of the GirlsDoPorn website is becoming increasingly intense. The founder, Michael Pratt, must have been aware that his business practices were massively illegal and that the lawsuit against him would end against him. The flight to his home country New Zealand was ultimately seen by trial observers as an admission of guilt and at the same time as a sign that the website’s former multi-million dollar assets could no longer be used to compensate the victims. Pratt’s partner had already admitted to having transferred funds overseas.
Thus, the freezing and forced sale of the company’s remaining assets by the San Diego court might come too late for the victims of the porn site. In the meantime, the civil damages suit turned into a criminal law case as well. The public prosecutor’s office had filed a lawsuit against the side operators for sex trafficking.
The responsible judge also ordered that all payment processors who have done business with GirlsDoPorn must transfer the company’s sales to a new, separate account. In absentia, Pratt and his business partners were ordered to transfer all funds, documents and assets abroad back to the US within five days.
However, Pratt has gone into hiding and apart from a claim that he was insolvent, he did not comment on any development so far. The fate of the remaining assets will be determined on 19 November.
More information on the case can be found in the previous reports on VAN:
Pornhub closes GirlsDoPorn Account.
FSC Statement on GirlsDoPorn Trial.