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Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the U.S. Attorney's
office in Brooklyn charged Montreal-based Aylo Holdings,
formerly known as MindGeek, with one count of engaging in
unlawful monetary transactions involving sex trafficking
proceeds.
The charge stems from Aylo's websites hosting of content from
pornography websites GirlsDoPorn.com (GDP) and GirlsDoToys.com (GDT),
whose creators and operators were charged in California in 2019
with deceiving and coercing young women to appear in sex videos.
Several were convicted.
Aylo - whose brands also include YouPorn and Brazzers - received
more than $100,000 from GDP, which the site's operators had
derived from sex trafficking, according to a copy of the
agreement filed in Brooklyn federal court.
In addition to the $1.8 million payment, Aylo will pay victims
whose images were posted on its platform and have not already
been compensated, prosecutors said.
According to the agreement, GDP gave MindGeek information that
"purported to establish" the women in the videos had consented,
but Mindgeek did not independently verify that.
"It was very troubling for us to learn that a production company
was using criminal means to produce content," Solomon Friedman,
a partner at Aylo owner Ethical Capital Partners, told Reuters
on Thursday.
Under the agreement, prosecutors will after three years dismiss
the charge against Aylo as long as the company improves its
compliance protocols. Aylo will also have an independent
compliance monitor for that period.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom approved the agreement at a
hearing on Thursday.
Hundreds of individuals have been identified as victims of GDP's
sex trafficking, prosecutors said.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New YorkEditing by Mark Potter and
David Gregorio)
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