Aylo Holdings, the parent company of online pornography site Pornhub, will pay $1.8 million in damages to victims to avoid a sex trafficking prosecution, officials said on Thursday.
The Canadian company, based in Montreal in the province of Quebec, sealed a deal known as "deferred prosecution," according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn. The agreement requires the company to pay that amount to the government, as well as separate payments to each of the women harmed by sex trafficking. It also calls for the appointment of an independent monitor for three years to ensure that Aylo abides by the agreed terms, after which the charges will be dropped.
James Smith, head of the FBI's New York office, said Aylo Holdings "knowingly enriched itself by turning a blind eye" to victims who told the company they had been deceived and coerced in videos later released by the company.
The charges stem from Aylo's role as a video host and for the acceptance of payments from GirlsDoPorn. According to the federal judiciary, Aylo began in 2009 hosting and disseminating sex videos on Pornhub.com created by GirlsDoPorn (GDP), a company owned by Michael Pratt and several associates. These individuals were indicted in 2019 in California on charges of sex trafficking and luring and coercing young women to appear in pornographic videos posted online without their permission.
"This deferred prosecution agreement holds the parent company of Pornhub.com accountable for its role in hosting videos and accepting payments from criminal actors who coerced young women into engaging in sexual acts on videos that were posted without their consent," said Brooklyn federal prosecutor Breon Peace.
Furthermore, according to a statement from a US court, the parent company of Pornhub.com, along with other pornographic websites such as Brazzers and Youporn, will be mandated to provide financial compensation to individual victims of sex trafficking.
