LOS ANGELES—A federal district judge ruled last week that Visa must face new allegations that the credit card giant profited from the monetization of child sexual abuse material that was posted to Pornhub.com and other websites owned by Montreal-based Aylo and its ownership group, the Ottawa-based private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP).
U.S. District Judge Wesley L. Hsu of the Central District of California issued the order on July 9 in civil minutes about the case Serena Fleites v. MindGeek S.A.R.L. et al. As AVN has reported extensively, Fleites was the subject of a controversial New York Times opinion column by contributor Nicholas Kristof called "The Children of Pornhub."
In his column, Kristof used Fleites as a framing device to justify claims that Pornhub was a hotbed for illegal content, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Fleites disclosed to Kristof and in litigation against Aylo and Visa that she was victimized in her early teen years.
Krisof's column was published in December 2020, setting the company formerly known as MindGeek on a path of radical reformation, reorganization and rebranding. Litigation on behalf of Fleites was initiated in 2021 with much support from the anti-pornography movement.
Lawyers representing Fleites argued that MindGeek, before rebranding to Aylo, as well as Visa and a class of private equity firms that predate ECP, benefited and profited from her victimization.
The immediate ruling issued by Hsu puts Visa back in focus, as the company now must face the allegations that it knew it was monetizing and profiting from CSAM found on Pornhub and other platforms owned by Aylo/MindGeek. This means that Visa allegedly conspired to violate the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act by entering into a supposed agreement with Aylo/MindGeek that "'minimizes the visibility of illegal conduct' [...] in furtherance of unlawful acts."
Hsu added in his order, "Accordingly, the court finds that this allegation sufficiently demonstrates conspiracy. ... As this matter is before the Court at the pleading stage, the court finds that Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged the existence of an agreement and have provided, through the aforementioned allegations, a factual basis supporting those allegations."
In earlier filings responding to the claims made by Fleites, Visa attorneys argued, "The court previously dismissed all claims against Visa ... principally on the ground that Visa acted only as a 'remote intermediary' whose conduct evinced neither an agreement nor an intent to join a conspiracy in furtherance of the wrongful conduct alleged."
The judge also dismissed claims against the so-called "Redwood Defendants," including Redwood Capital Management and its affiliated funds and subsidiaries. AVN reported on the case in 2024, when Fleites and her counsel filed a second amended complaint targeting Redwood and funds managed by Colbeck Capital Management.
A spokesperson told Bloomberg Law at the time of the 2024 filing that the firm divested its position in Aylo/MindGeek after sex trafficking allegations were made in 2020. The "agreement" allegation against Aylo and Visa stems from the third amended complaint filed by Fleites and her counsel earlier this year.
Aylo was initially sued by Fleites in June 2021 accusing Visa and Aylo of working in conjunction in facilitating the unlawful monetization of CSAM imagery that depicts her being in a pressured sexual scenario when she was 13. The video was uploaded to Pornhub without her consent. In a 2022 report on the case, a spokesperson for Aylo/MindGeek told the showbiz outlet Variety that the company felt the case would be dismissed for "lack of merit."
"MindGeek has zero tolerance for the posting of illegal content on its platforms, and has instituted the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history," the spokesperson added.
Litigation is ongoing.
