Michael James Pratt, who was on the list of FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives which had previously included the likes of Osama Bin Laden and serial killer Ted Bundy, has been arrested in Spain after being on the run for three years.
He was arrested on Wednesday in Madrid where he was staying in a hotel under a fake identity. Pratt had been sentenced to life in prison in the United States for sexual exploitation and sexual assault, and for producing child sexual abuse images.
Moreover, the New Zealander was involved in the audiovisual production of recordings, recruiting underage girls and young women through deception between 2012 and 2019. Pratt made more than $17 million through these unlawful activities.
$100,000 Bounty
The Federal Bureau of Investigations had declared a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy of the FBI San Diego Field Office said the capture of Michael Pratt is an example of how the bureau will pursue justice beyond US borders.
Pratt was charged with sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, as well as production of child pornography and sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud and coercion. He also placed online advertisements in the US and Canada offering "modelling jobs" which turned out to be pornographic recordings. Police said Pratt paid other women to act as "bait" and convince the victims the recorded material would not be published online. The New Zealander is alleged to have held victims against their will and forced them to perform sexual acts to which they had previously expressly refused consent.
Operators of Girls Do Porn
Pratt ran a website GirlsDoPorn with co-owner Matthew Isaac Wolfe, who is also from New Zealand. The latter had pleaded guilty in July to sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, as well as conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion.
According to US authorities, Pratt and Wolfe filmed young women from the US and Canada doing sexual acts between 2012 and 2019. The pair lured them to the shoots under the guise of posing for clothed modelling gigs. The victims later found that the jobs were pornography videos and were promised that the videos would not be posted online. Authorities said some victims were held against their will until the videos were completed.
Wolf said that Pratt also operated a portal called pornwikileaks.com. It had information and social media accounts for some women being filmed. The portal was dedicated to exposing the true identities of the women on the sex videos, whereby the victims were severely harassed.
