CEO of 'World's Top Online Brothel' Backpage.com Nabbed on Calif. Pimping Charges

The CEO of Backpage.com, an adult classified listings site that officials allege facilitates sex trafficking, was arrested on a California arrest warrant Thursday, prosecutors say.

CEO Carl Ferrer was arrested in Texas upon returning to the United States from Europe. He's facing felony charges of pimping a minor, pimping and conspiracy to commit pimping, according to the attorney general's office.

“Raking in millions of dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is outrageous, despicable and illegal,” said California Attorney General Kamala Harris. “Backpage and its executives purposefully and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the world’s top online brothel. Thank you to the California Department of Justice Special Agents, investigators, attorneys, and our partners in law enforcement who have worked tirelessly to bring the operators of this online brothel to justice and protect thousands of victims of trafficking.”

According to press releases issued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Ferrer was arrested at the Houston Intercontinental Airport upon his return from Amsterdam on Thursday afternoon. The site has since been shut down. In his press release, the attorney general's office categorized the portal as "...a notorious adult website that generates millions of dollars annually from its classified sex ads."

"We cannot allow this evil to endure,” he expanded in the prepared statement, referencing the site that he says facilitates modern-day slavery of both children and adults and generates millions of dollars from its classified ads.

Ferrer, 55, was taken into custody on a California arrest warrant after he arrived in Houston on a flight from Amsterdam, Paxton's office disclosed.

"A lengthy joint investigation by the offices of the Texas and California attorneys general uncovered evidence that adult and child sex trafficking victims were forced into prostitution through escort ads that appeared repeatedly on Backpage," the statement reads.

Michael Lacey and James Larkin, controlling shareholders of Backpage, are also facing felony charges of conspiracy to commit pimping, according to the California AG's office.

The Netherlands-based company has its U.S. headquarters in Dallas. It has long been linked to sex trafficking in the United States, particularly places like Portland, Oregon, where law enforcement agencies routinely arrest people who have used the site. Law enforcement agencies have even placed ads on the site to lure offenders.

Here in California, officials say there are Backpage sites in more than two dozen cities. There are hundreds worldwide.

"Backpage’s internal revenue reports show that from January 2013 to March 2015, 99% of Backpage’s worldwide income was directly attributable to the 'adult' section," according to the California Attorney General. "During this 29-month period, Backpage’s self-reporting demonstrates that gross monthly income from California rose to $2.5 million per month, with over $51 million in revenue derived from California in that period."

“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. “I intend to use every resource my office has to make sure those who profit from the exploitation and trafficking of persons are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Nearly three dozen members of the Texas Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Unit participated in Ferrer’s arrest and the execution of a search warrant on the Dallas headquarters of Backpage, "...which is considered the largest advertiser of adult escort services in the United States," the AG's office said.

In his press release, Paxton referenced the January launching of his office's Human Trafficking and Transnational/Organized Crime (HTTOC) unit, which works closely with prosecutors around the state to bring human traffickers to justice. Recently, HTTOC helped the Nueces County district attorney’s office secure a 40-year sentence for the trafficker of a 15-year-old victim, Paxton noted.

Backpage.com has long run afoul of lawmakers across the country for its racy personal ads that some see as a portal to promote human sex trafficking. In 2014, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott joined 20 other attorneys general in asking Village Voice Media to end its online adult classified listings.

At the time, the attorneys general posted a letter on the site itself, urging its operators to follow the revamped model of Craigslist.com, which stopped running adult classified listings after a national uproar.

"We believe that ads for prostitution - including ads trafficking children - are rampant on the site and that the volume of these ads will grow in light of Craigslist's recent decision to eliminate the adult services section of its site," the letter said.

Patch's Colin Miner in Portland, Oregon, and Tony Cantu in Texas contributed to this report.