Sentencing for Backpage Execs Who Pleaded Guilty Pushed to 2020

For the second time this year, the former CEO of now-shuttered online sex advertising site Backpage.com has seen his sentencing delayed—this time for a full year, according to an Associated Press report. Ferrer’s sentecing in the case had originally been scheduled for January of 2019, but was rescheduled for July.  

Now, the sentencing for Ferrer and another top Backpage exec—sales and marketing director Dan Hyer—has been pushed all the way to July of 2020, according to the AP report. 

Just a week after federal investigators seized and closed down the Backpage site in April of last year, Ferrer took a plea deal, copping to a single conspiracy charge in Arizona. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering charges in California, as AVN.com reported.  

But court documents revealed that Ferrer had been cooperating with the federal investigation into Backpage—which feds accuse of knowingly taking ads from sex traffickers—since April 5, 2018, the day before the federal raids that resulted in taking Backpage.com offline, and in the arrests of top executives including co-founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin.

No reason was given for the 12-month sentencing delay for Ferrer and Hyer. But in many, though not all, cases, prosecutors will delay sentencing for offenders who cooperate with investigators until their cooperation is complete and prosecutors believe they have obtained all the information they can get.

Lacey and Larkin have pleaded not guilty and continue to fight the sex trafficking and money laundering charges against them, as well as the attempts by the government to seize more than $100 million in assets from the two men. Earlier this month, lawyers for Lacey and Larkin argued in a federal court that the asset seizures violated their First Amendment rights, but a three-judge panel declined to make a ruling on their claim, as AVN.com reported

Photo by Sacramento County Sheriff's Office