One of the Girls Do Porn Ringleaders Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking Charges

One of the major ringleaders of the Girls Do Porn operation pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. 

Matthew Isaac Wolfe was the co-conspirator and lead videographer for Girls Do Porn, a criminal operation masquerading as a pornography studio that recorded and disseminated sex tapes of potentially hundreds of women over nearly eight years. 

Wolfe’s charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine, but his sentencing will occur at a later date. 

"Today was a good day for all of the victims,” Brian Holm, the attorney who represented the women in the civil trial, told Motherboard. 

The operators of Girls Do Porn lured victims—many of them still in college, some under or just barely of legal age—from across the country to hotel rooms in San Diego, with the promise of making fast money in “modeling.” Many of the women weren’t informed that they were walking into a porn shoot, and some were physically or sexually abused, harassed, and intimidated into enduring lengthy, aggressive sex sessions once they arrived.

The women were told that these videos would never see audiences in the U.S., and that they would remain with private collectors in places like New Zealand or Australia. The operators uploaded the videos to mainstream porn websites almost immediately after filming them, to massively popular sites like Pornhub, where they reached millions of viewers and friends and family saw them. In some cases, this experience destroyed their lives and continues to haunt them. 

“This crime had a devastating impact on the victims,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a press release. “We will seek justice for human trafficking victims in hopes that it will help them reclaim their lives and leave the pain of this experience in the past.”

“Wolfe lied to and preyed on vulnerable young women, subjecting them to years of relentless harassment, fear and mental anguish,” Stacey Moy, special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego Field Office, said in the release.

In 2019, the owners of Girls Do Porn were found guilty of intimidating and coercing 22 women into these videos. Fifty women sued Mindgeek, Pornhub’s parent company, for failing to moderate these videos; that case settled.

In December 2021, courts ordered that the women in the Girls Do Porn and affiliated Girls Do Toys videos own all the rights to their images, likenesses, videos, and copyrights. 

Wolfe is the latest in a string of guilty pleas from Girls Do Porn conspirators. In December 2020, the male performer in the videos, Ruben Andre Garcia, similarly pleaded guilty to federal counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. Teddy Gyi, the production’s cameraman, pleaded guilty to the same in January 2021. Valerie Moser, an administrative assistant who helped Wolfe, Garcia, and their co-conspirator Michael Pratt coerce women into appearing in the shoots, pleaded guilty in April 2021.   

Pratt, considered the leader of the group, is still on the run. While his co-conspirators were being taken into custody, Pratt allegedly fled the country ahead of the trial, and has been on the FBI’s most wanted list since 2020, with the current reward for his whereabouts set at $50,000. Wolfe has been wiring Pratt funds, according to the FBI.  

“It shouldn't have taken nearly three years for it to occur but we're happy it did,” Holm said. “Our focus now turns to finding Michael Pratt."