DALLAS, Texas – The hearing will begin on Monday for the founders of the advertising site Backpage.com, accused of running ads for sexual services and human trafficking in Texas.
- Backpage pleads guilty to sex trafficking
- CEO takes plea deal
- Two other operators pleading not guilty
The sites operators, Micheal Lacey, James Larkin and Carl Ferrer are believed to have ignored warnings to stop running advertisements that promoted prostitution, including children.
Larkin was arrested on April 6 for charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money. Lacey, a co-founder, bonded out of jail at $1 million. They are both pleading not guilty.
Ferrer, the CEO, is pleading guilty to the federal conspiracy charges in Arizona and money laundering in California. The company also pleaded guilty to human trafficking in Texas.
The website was shut down by the Texas Attorney General’s Office earlier this month. Ferrer took a plea deal from Ken Paxton’s office with a sentence of up to five years in prison for cooperating with the investigation.
Backpage pleaded guilty to sex trafficking women and children in 943 locations in 97 counties and 17 languages. Paxton’s office reported that the site was responsible for 73 percent of all child trafficking cases reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.