Backpage co-founder claims he didn’t know it was being used for prostitution
Late last month, the trial for Backpage co-founder Mike Lacey started. Lacey is on trial for charges of money laundering and facilitating prostitution. Long story short, Lacey and his late cohort, Jim Larkin, allegedly made millions of dollars from the thinly-veiled prostitution ads Backpage used to run. The pair were also accused of allegedly laundering money from Backpage after they were cut off by the major credit card companies. If you’d like to do a deep dive into the Backpage story, you can do so here. Lacey and Larkin were supposed to stand trial together, but tragically, Jim Larkin took his own life before the trial began.
In the opening statements of the trial, Mike Lacey’s attorney stated that his client believed there were no ads for prostitution on Backpage because Lacey wasn’t involved in the day-to-day operations of the website. Lacey’s attorney continued, stating that the users of Backpage abused the platform by posting ads for prostitution, and Lacey should be held harmless. To that, I have to say, seriously?
In Backpage’s heyday, they used to tout themselves as a resource police used to find victims who were being trafficked online. The victims weren’t being trafficked to work in sweatshops, they were being trafficked into sexual slavery, and the ads on Backpage made that more than obvious. Both the notion that Lacey didn’t know and Backpage was a police resource can’t both be true at the same time. George Orwell had a term for this, but quoting 1984 anymore is so passé. You can’t be both the cause of and a solution to a problem.
Lacey’s attorney also throws former Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer under the bus. The attorney said Lacey relied on Ferrer to keep the website free of prostitution. Lacey claims he was told by Ferrer that the website was doing everything possible to keep bad actors off of Backpage. Ferrer, himself, has already pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to facilitate prostitution in three different U.S. state courts. So, it’s no surprise Lacey’s defense will try to put the burden of guilt on Ferrer.
As has been mentioned before, when the legal pressure was really coming down on Backpage, they would knowingly edit the wording of the submitted ads to allegedly make them appear less illicit. The defense claims this was done instead to stop any illegal activity from taking place. I don’t know in what universe counsel thinks that’s how crime prevention works, but you have to admit, his client isn’t giving him much to work with.
Former Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer was the first witness for the prosecution. He testified Backpage ads were strictly for prostitution. He also testified that when craigslist got rid of adult ads in 2010, Backpage became the online monopoly of the prostitution category, and raised ad prices accordingly. Ferrer also testified, Backpage entered into a clandestine agreement with the Erotic Review website, which is a sort of Yelp-type website for sex workers. Backpage would also allegedly roll out the red carpet for what they called ‘superposters’. These would be people who would post thousands of prostitution ads on Backpage. You know, sex traffickers.
With Ferrer’s testimony, it’s hard to believe that Mike Lacey was some kind of Mr. Magoo character, blindly stumbling around while not realizing his website was being used for prostitution. Lacey used to be an editor for a team of award-winning investigative journalists. There’s absolutely no chance Lacey didn’t know that his website was making millions of dollars from sex trafficking.
I’ll have more as details become available and as circumstances allow.
(Sources)
