Ex-Chicago Lawyer Guilty In 'Porno-Trolling Collective'

CHICAGO, IL — A former Chicago attorney who made roughly $6 million dollars from fraudulent copyright lawsuits as part of what a judge called a "porno-trolling collective" pleaded guilty this week in federal court.

John L. Steele, 45, admitted to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering as part of a scheme to get copyrights to pornography and then sue people who downloaded it.

After years of denying any wrongdoing, Steele said he and a partner set up a series of shell companies to hold copyrights to a series of pornographic movies, some of which they filmed themselves, according to his Monday guilty plea before a district court judge in Minnesota.

Steele, who now lives in Pennsylvania, said he and former law school classmate Paul Hansmeier then uploaded the movies to file-sharing websites like "The Pirate Bay" in order to file bogus copyright infringement lawsuits against people who downloaded them through a firm called "Prenda Law," among others, the plea said.

Steele and Hansmeier hid their role in making the porn and hid the fact that they had a personal stake in the outcome of the litigation. They subpoenaed Internet service providers to get subscriber information and then sent letters and made phone calls to the victims, threatening them with "enormous financial penalties and public embarrassment unless they agreed to pay a $3,000 settlement fee," according to the Department of Justice.

The lawyer's porn copyright conspiracy began to be uncovered by the feds back in 2013, when judge Otis Wright said the two had defrauded the court with their "porno-trolling collective," sanctioned them and turned over the case to the FBI.

Top photo: Patch file.