Carl Ferrer, CEO of adult classified ads portal Backpage.com, was being held in Texas on a California warrant alleging sex trafficking, reported NBC News, which said court documents claim the site knowingly took money from underage prostitutes.
Ferrer, 55, was taken into custody after he arrived at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport on a flight from Amsterdam on Thursday, according to Fox News.
He was arrested on felony charges of pimping a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping, said California Attorney General Kamala Harris, per Fox News.
She said the site's controlling shareholders, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, have been charged with conspiracy to commit pimping, and warrants have been issued for their arrests.
Ferrer was being held on $500,000 bond and will have to face an extradition hearing before he can return to California, per Fox News.
According to Harris, Backpage.com’s ads for “escort services” made it an online "call house" that was bringing in millions of dollars from illegal sex trade.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said agents from his Law Enforcement Unit had conducted a search of Backpage’s headquarters in Dallas and found evidence that “adult and child sex trafficking victims were forced into prostitution through escort ads that appeared repeatedly on Backpage.”
“Making money off the backs of innocent human beings by allowing them to be exploited for modern-day slavery is not acceptable in Texas,” Paxton said in a statement.
“Raking in millions of dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is outrageous, despicable and illegal,” Harris said. “Backpage and its executives purposefully and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the world’s top online brothel.”
Liz McDougall, an attorney who represents Backpage, has declined to comment.
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