LOS ANGELES—Attorneys representing Alexander Rhodes, the founder of NoFap LLC, are now claiming the parent company of Pornhub.com and a class of defendants that include two scientists, the University of California, Los Angeles, and an academic publisher are engaged in a civil racketeering conspiracy under federal RICO law.
The filing was made before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Note that the case was originally filed in a common pleas court at the state level before the defendants opted to remove it to the federal district court, where Rhodes' claims are likely to face much higher levels of scrutiny by a judge.
According to a court filing made on Jan. 13, Rhodes and his attorneys are pressing the claim that Pornhub's parent, Aylo, Dr. Nicole Prause, Dr. David Ley, the University of California, Los Angeles, and academic publisher Taylor & Francis committed to an unlawful enterprise to defame Rhodes and protect Aylo's financial interests.
"All of the listed defendants conspired in a scheme and engaged in a pattern and practice of attacking, defaming, threatening, and/or undermining plaintiffs’ legitimate personal and/or business interests for the purpose of profiting their enterprise," claims the filing written by Rhodes's attorney, David Kobylinski.
Kobylinski goes on to claim that Prause engaged in wire fraud to benefit financially from Aylo's alleged coordination of the illegal enterprise.
"Plaintiffs believe and therefore aver that Pornhub provided funds to defendant Prause surreptitiously through various entities, including the Free Speech Coalition," notes the filing, referencing the fact that the adult industry trade group, the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), features corporate members in its membership rolls.
Similar accusations are made against Ley, also alleging that Aylo allegedly "provided funds to defendant Ley surreptitiously through various entities, including the Free Speech Coalition."
Kobylinski presented his RICO theory, saying they "believe that there may be numerous other entities involved in the scheme whereby they engaged in a pattern and practice of attacking, defaming, threatening, and/or undermining plaintiffs' legitimate personal and/or business interests for the purpose of profiting their enterprise."
"[The] plaintiff believes the Free Speech Coalition was one such entity," notes the text in the filing. "Plaintiff has also identified Althea Azeff, and an individual using the alias DaddyWolfBear, and many others." DaddyWolfBear appears to be an adult content creator who has simply reposted Ley's and Prause's posts on X.
Azeff is the biological mother of Rhodes, whom he has sued in a separate defamation case in federal court. That case was dismissed in January 2025.
Lawrence Walters, a Florida-based First Amendment attorney, explained to AVN why a plaintiff who claims racketeering in defamation cases like this one could be used to intimidate critics of a particular organization or an individual. RICO, or the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, is a federal law that explicitly targets organized criminal organizations, including a civil cause of action to punish acts allegedly committed by such organizations in civil legal spheres.
"RICO claims are increasingly used in an effort to silence protected speech," said Walters. "Many of these claims qualify as SLAPP suits and can be quickly dismissed in states that have effective anti-SLAPP laws." Here, Walters refers to "strategic lawsuits against public participation" (SLAPP). SLAPP claims are often regarded by many judges as meritless, as they are used by individuals and companies to potentially scare and silence critics, journalists, and activists by exhausting time spent and money.
"RICO claims involve draconian penalties in the form of high damages, costs, and attorneys' fees," added Walters, who specified that he is not directly commenting on the NoFap case. "These cases are also expensive to litigate, given the need to prove the existence of a RICO enterprise and a pattern of racketeering activity."
He concludes, "Moreover, many judges have become sensitive to the misuse of RICO laws as a vehicle for chilling protected speech."
AVN previously reported that Alexander Rhodes is suing Aylo, Prause, Ley, UCLA, and Taylor & Francis.
Rhodes et al. v. Aylo Holdings SARL et al. was initially filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. That case number is GD-24-013043. The legal case has now been removed to federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The current case number is 2:25-cv-01956-MJH.
