PHOENIX—Backpage.com co-founder Michael Lacey surrendered to the U.S. Marshals Service Wednesday at the federal courthouse in downtown Phoenix to begin his five-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of a single felony count of international concealment money laundering.
Lacey founded Backpage with late business partner and friend James Larkin. The controversial classified website featured advertisements for sex workers and erotic services, which attracted the attention of prosecutors who allege Lacey and Larkin knowingly facilitated sex trafficking.
"Jim was told by every lawyer that he consulted with that the ads on Backpage were legal,” Lacey said in an interview with local news outlet AZ Family. "We didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. We thought the ads were legal. We were instructed by the attorneys that the ads were legal. And we always cooperated with the government."
AZ Family reporter Morgan Loew gives credence to this claim by referring to a damning Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that was published in 2021 about the enforcement of the controversial anti-trafficking law FOSTA-SESTA.
In that report, GAO auditors found that law enforcement agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) faced greater barriers in tracking down legitimate cases of sex trafficking.
"[Gathering] tips and evidence to investigate and prosecute those who control or use online platforms has become more difficult due to the relocation of platforms overseas, platforms’ use of complex payment systems, and the increased use of social media platforms," notes the GAO.
"When we were cooperating with the government, there were hundreds of rescues of underage people who had snuck through the system," explained Lacey in the AZ Family interview.
However, prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona were not swayed by these facts, and chose to characterize Backpage as a "prostitution website."
After he was sentenced to five years by a federal judge, Lacey was given until September 11 to surrender himself.
Sex workers' rights groups and civil liberties organizations have raised concerns about the persecution of Backpage.com on several grounds.
For example, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona filed an amicus brief in May 2019 in support of Lacey and Larkin in the first federal trial that resulted in a mistrial.
"The court should hold the government to its burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants knew that specific advertisements in question solicited illegal conduct: it should not to open the door to criminal liability merely for providing an online forum where others might have posted improper content," ACLU said at the time.
Sexual freedom activism NGO Woodhull Freedom Foundation continues fighting the constitutionality of FOSTA-SESTA.
