Backpage CEO Pleads Guilty In Texas

HOUSTON, TX — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday his office’s prosecution of Backpage.com has resulted in the company pleading guilty to human trafficking in Texas and its CEO, Carl Ferrer, pleading guilty to money laundering.

Ferrer will be sentenced to up to five years in prison once he’s fulfilled the terms of his plea agreement with Paxton’s office. His cooperation in the ongoing investigation into Backpage could lead to other criminal charges against individuals associated with the company.

Backpage, the largest online sex trafficking marketplace in the world, facilitated the sex trafficking of innocent women and children through sites it ran for 943 locations in 97 countries and 17 languages. Furthermore, it was involved in 73 percent of all child trafficking cases reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to Paxton's office.

“Taking down Backpage and obtaining a criminal conviction for the company and its CEO represents a significant victory in the fight against human trafficking in Texas and around the world,” Paxton said. “I want to thank the Attorney General of California, the U.S. Department of Justice, federal law enforcement officials, Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez, and the prosecutors and law enforcement in my office for their outstanding collaborative work on this investigation and prosecution.”

This comes almost a week after the the Department of Justice permanently shutting down the website.

In October 2016, Attorney General Paxton’s Law Enforcement Division arrested Ferrer in Houston. It also executed a search warrant on the Dallas headquarters of Backpage, uncovering evidence that was critical in building a case against Ferrer and the company.

Attorney General Paxton has made combating human trafficking a top priority. Two years ago, he launched his office’s Human Trafficking and Transnational/Organized Crime Section, which prosecutes human traffickers around the state of Texas. Earlier this year, he unveiled a training video to teach Texans how to spot and report suspected human trafficking activity.

President Donald Trump Wednesday signed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 into law, which makes it a Federal crime to own, manage, or operate a website with the intent to promote or facilitate prostitution
View Attorney General Paxton’s statement on Backpage here: https://bit.ly/2IHoE31

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