Backpage founders indicted
PHOENIX — The classified advertising site Backpage. com ignored warnings to stop running advertisements promoting prostitution, sometimes involving children, because the lucrative enterprise brought in half a billion dollars, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.
The charges against Backpage. com founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin, along with five others, accused them of publishing some ads that depicted children who authorities said were sex trafficking victims.
The indictment said the site contended it tried to prevent prostitution ads, but investigators determined that was not the case and that owners declined to take steps to confront the problem.
Backpage. com employees sought to help customers edit their ads to stay within legal limits while still encouraging commercial sex, prosecutors said. Photos and words that were indicative of prostitution were removed before such ads were run, according to the indictment.
“Nevertheless, the Backpage defendants made a financial decision to continue displaying those ads,” the indictment said, noting the site has brought $ 500 million in prostitutionrelated revenues since its inception in 2004.
Lacey, Larkin and five others who work for the site were indicted on federal charges in what authorities said was a scheme to knowingly facilitate prostitution by running ads for sexual services and using foreign banks to hide revenues. Last week, federal authorities seized Backpage. com and its affiliated websites.
Lacey and Larkin are chargedwith facilitating prostitution and money laundering. Larry Kazan, an attorney representing Lacey, and Cristina Arguedas, a lawyer for Larkin, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.