Aylo: Pornhub's parent company admits to profiting from sex trafficking

"Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Aylo Holdings S.A.R.L. (formerly MindGeek S.A.R.L.) (Aylo), parent company to Pornhub.com, was arraigned on a charge of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions involving sex trafficking proceeds, after entering into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York to resolve the charge," US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.

Aylo operates free and paid adult websites that allow third parties to post and distribute adult videos, including on its websites Pornhub.com and PornhubPremium.com. 

"As part of its business, Aylo contracted and/or partnered with adult entertainment companies who were given personalized channels on Aylo’s websites, which Aylo promoted and from which Aylo profited," read the statement.

Beginning in 2009, Aylo hosted pornographic videos created by GirlsDoPorn (GDP) founder Michael Pratt and his co-conspirators (collectively referred to as the “GDP Operators”) on Aylo’s websites, including Pornhub.com. 

The GDP Operators owned and operated a pornographic production company and online pornography websites called GDP and “GirlsDoToys” (GDT). 

In 2019, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of California returned an indictment against the GDP Operators, for, among other charges, sex trafficking offenses, for deceiving and coercing young women to appear in sex videos which were then posted online without the women’s consent.

"According to Aylo’s admissions and/or court documents filed today, between 2017 and 2019, Aylo received money that Aylo knew or should have known was derived from the GDP Operators’ sex trafficking operations," the statement said.

"For example, in September 2017, Aylo learned that many of the women appearing in the GDP and GDT videos had filed a civil lawsuit in California against the GDP Operators alleging that the complainants had been tricked and coerced into filming the adult videos and that the videos were posted on Pornhub.com without their consent," the statement said.

The statement said: "Between 2016 and 2019, Aylo also received several content removal requests from complainants seeking to remove GDP videos from its websites."

The complainants told Aylo that they had been lied to and defrauded into making these videos and that the videos were posted on Pornhub.com without their consent. 

Although Aylo sought, and received, information from the GDP Operators that purported to establish that the complainants had given consent for their videos to be posted online, Aylo did not independently verify consent and did not remove all the videos that were requested to be taken down.

Moreover, in August 2019, Aylo learned that a GDP videographer had testified during the civil trial that he falsely told women that their sex videos would not appear online so that they would agree to appear in the videos, and that such videos were posted on Pornhub.com. 

Despite the above, Aylo continued to host the GDP and GDT channels on its websites and accept money from its partnership with the GDP Operators.

Under the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement, Aylo has agreed to pay $1,844,952.83 to the United States. 

Aylo has also agreed to provide monetary payments to victims of the GDP Operators who have not otherwise already received compensation, and whose images were posted on Aylo’s platforms.

Aylo has agreed to be subject to an independent Monitor for a period of three years. 

The Monitor will be tasked with assessing the company’s compliance with the terms of the DPA.