Pornhub owner pays $1.8 mln to resolve US probe of sex trafficking ties

The company that owns and operates adult entertainment websites including Pornhub.com will pay $1.8 million to the U.S. government to resolve a probe into its ties to an alleged sex trafficking operation, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.
Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn charged Montreal-based Aylo Holdings, formerly known as MindGeek, with one count of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions involving sex trafficking proceeds.
The charge stems from Aylo’s websites hosting of content from pornography websites GirlsDoPorn.com (GDP) and GirlsDoToys.com (GDT), whose creators and operators were charged in California in 2019 with deceiving and coercing young women to appear in sex videos. Several were convicted.
In addition to the $1.8 million payment, Aylo will pay victims whose images were posted on its platform and have not already been compensated, prosecutors said.
“It was very troubling for us to learn that a production company was using criminal means to produce content,” Solomon Friedman, a partner at Aylo owner Ethical Capital Partners, told Reuters on Thursday.