Former Backpage Executives Stand Trial for Alleged Prostitution and Money Laundering Charges
In a federal trial held in Phoenix, the defense for former Backpage.com executives and operations managers argued that their clients had actively worked to keep the platform free of prostitution-related ads, despite ever-changing strategies. Scott Spear, Andrew Padilla, and Joye Vaught are facing charges of facilitating prostitution and money laundering, and their attorneys emphasized their cooperation with authorities.
Bruce Feder, representing former executive vice-president Scott Spear, claimed that Backpage was perceived by law enforcement as the most cooperative site. He stated, “They thought they were doing good. They wanted to get abusers off their site.”
Joy Bertrand described how Joye Vaught, the assistant operations manager, diligently worked for nine years to prevent ads suggesting sex acts or deemed “trashy” from being posted. Bertrand read from an email Vaught had sent in 2014, highlighting ads with multiple violations that had slipped through Backpage’s moderation.
Andrew Padilla’s attorney, David Eisenberg, explained how Padilla had risen from an $11-per-hour job to become a full-time operations manager overseeing 200 site moderators in Dallas. However, the evolving screening standards under CEO Carl Ferrer led to confusion in Padilla’s role. Eisenberg questioned, “Who’s the guiding light here? Not my client.”
These three defendants are on trial alongside Backpage founder Michael Lacey and former CFO John Brunst, who had their opening statements last month.
This marks the second trial for all five defendants, who are facing charges related to knowingly selling ads for sex on Backpage.com. They have all pleaded not guilty to facilitating prostitution, with three of them, including Lacey, denying money laundering charges.
The first trial ended in a mistrial in September 2021 due to an excess of references to child sex trafficking in a case where no such charges were filed.
Lacey and James Larkin, who co-founded the Phoenix New Times weekly newspaper and owned other weeklies like The Village Voice, held onto Backpage until its closure in 2018. Authorities claim the site generated $500 million in prostitution-related revenue over its 14-year existence.
While Backpage’s marketing director admitted guilt in conspiring to facilitate prostitution and offering free ads to prostitutes to gain their business, Ferrer pleaded guilty to separate federal conspiracy and state money laundering charges.
Prosecutors allege that Backpage’s operators ignored warnings about running prostitution ads, including those involving minors, and cultivated relationships with individuals in the sex trade to post ads on the site. They also claim Backpage aggregated users through Google searches, offering free ads to prostitutes.
Backpage’s operators maintain they never allowed sex ads on the platform and used both people and automated tools to remove such content. They argue that the site’s content was protected by the First Amendment.
Lacey faces additional accusations of using cryptocurrency and foreign bank accounts to launder revenue from ad sales after banks raised concerns about illegal activity.
During the trial, the Backpage defendants are prohibited from referencing a 2013 memo by federal prosecutors, which highlighted the site’s substantial efforts to prevent criminal activity and its cooperation with law enforcement.
A Government Accountability Office report from June 2021 noted a decline in the FBI’s ability to identify victims and sex traffickers after Backpage’s seizure because the platform had been responsive to law enforcement requests.