Photo by Kyle Loftus
The cameraman for sex trafficking ring Girls Do Porn has been ordered to pay victims more than $100,000 in total, including half of what he makes working in the prison system for his two-year sentence.As first reported by Courthouse News, on Monday, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino ordered videographer Theodore Wilfred “Teddy” Gyi to pay $31,508.11 in restitution to one victim, and $72,341 to another. The full order can be viewed here. After pleading guilty to counts of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion in 2021, Gyi was sentenced to four years in prison. Sammartino’s order will require him to pay the victims 50 percent of whatever money he makes while in prison through the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program, or $25 per quarter, whichever is greater. After his sentence is up, he’ll be required to pay them at least $200 per month. In 2019, during a civil trial brought against Girls Do Porn by 22 women who were targeted by the group, Gyi admitted to lying to women about how their images would be used. Girls Do Porn ringleaders Michael Pratt (who was arrested while on the run from the FBI in December), Matthew Wolfe (who pled guilty to federal charges of sex trafficking in 2022) told women that their images would not reach their parents, friends, or the internet, and would only be available to “private collectors” in Australia and New Zealand. Gyi repeated this lie to them. When the operators of Girls Do Porn did release their videos all over the internet, in some cases almost immediately, the impact on their lives was devastating: many lost relationships with their families and were harassed online or at work, and some became suicidal. During the course of the shoots, some victims reported having been violently sexually assaulted by the main sexual partner in the videos, Ruben Andre Garcia. Gyi was present and recording for at least 100 of those shoots during his time working for Girls Do Porn from 2017 to 2019.