NetVideoGirls Lawsuit: $12.7M Verdict and $75.6M Restitution

The GirlsDoPorn lawsuits produced a $12.7 million civil judgment in San Diego Superior Court in January 2020 in favor of 22 women who sued under Jane Doe pseudonyms, and a parallel federal sex-trafficking prosecution that sent six people to prison, ordered more than $75 million in restitution, and stripped the operators of any rights to the videos. Founder Michael Pratt was sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years in federal prison. Related civil litigation against Pornhub’s parent company remains active.

What GirlsDoPorn Did to the Women

GirlsDoPorn and a companion site, GirlsDoToys, operated as a single San Diego-based business under New Zealand native Michael James Pratt. Starting around 2009, recruiters posted modeling ads on platforms like Craigslist to draw young women, typically 18 to 23, to filming locations in San Diego.¹ The pitch was legitimate, clothed modeling work. Once the women arrived, the shoot turned pornographic, and the women were told the footage would never appear online, would not be released in the United States, and would go instead to private DVD collectors overseas.²

Court findings and victim statements describe coercion at the shoot: threats of lawsuits, threats to cancel return flights, camera equipment placed in front of hotel room exits. Women signed release documents the San Diego Superior Court later called “dense and ambiguous legalese” and ruled “invalid and unenforceable.”¹ The promises of privacy were false. Videos were uploaded to paid subscription sites and to free platforms including Pornhub, generating more than $17 million, and the operators deliberately pushed the women’s personal identifying information online to force videos to spread through their home communities. When victims asked for takedowns, Pratt ignored them.²

The $12.7 Million Civil Verdict

In 2016, twenty-two women identified as Jane Does 1 through 22 sued Pratt, business partner Matthew Isaac Wolfe, adult film actor Ruben Andre Garcia, and ten other defendants in San Diego Superior Court. After a bench trial that ran from late August through late November 2019, Judge Kevin A. Enright issued his ruling on January 2, 2020.³

Enright found all thirteen defendants liable for intentional misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, misappropriation of name and likeness, and deceptive business practices. He ruled that the defendants and their corporate entities were “alter egos of each other and joint venturers in the fraudulent scheme.”¹ The award totaled $12.7 million: $9.45 million in compensatory damages and $3.3 million in punitive damages. The court also granted the plaintiffs ownership rights to their images, ordered removal of the videos from the internet and third-party sites, and required that any future recruitment ads prominently disclose that videos would be posted online.³

The Federal Criminal Case and Who Went to Prison

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of California indicted Pratt and several associates in October 2019. A superseding indictment eventually charged Pratt with 19 counts including sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion; conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; production of child pornography; sex trafficking of a minor; and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.⁴ Six people were charged in the conspiracy.

Ruben Andre Garcia, a recruiter and performer, pleaded guilty in December 2020 to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. On June 14, 2021, Judge Janis L. Sammartino sentenced him to 20 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release, and ordered roughly $18 million in restitution. The court also awarded all rights to the GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys videos and images to the victims depicted in them.⁵

Theodore Wilfred Gyi, a camera operator from 2015 to 2017 who filmed about 120 videos, admitted personally assuring the women the footage would never be posted online. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced on November 9, 2022, to four years in prison.⁶⁷

Matthew Isaac Wolfe, Pratt’s longtime business partner, pleaded guilty in July 2022 to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. He admitted deceiving women into the videos and acknowledged awareness that their personal information was being posted on a website controlled by the operation to expose them. Judge Sammartino sentenced Wolfe to 14 years in federal prison on March 19, 2024.⁸

Valorie Moser, the operation’s bookkeeper, pleaded guilty in April 2021 to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. She admitted transporting about 100 women to filming sites between 2015 and 2018 knowing they had been given false assurances. Her sentencing was delayed nearly five years because she provided what authorities called “significant assistance” to the government. On December 12, 2025, Judge Sammartino sentenced her to two years in federal prison.⁹

Douglas Wiederhold, a performer and salaried employee who appeared in 71 videos during 2011 and 2012, also picked up victims at the airport and drove them to shoots while assuring them the footage would only reach private overseas collectors. He pleaded guilty in April 2024 to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and was sentenced on January 30, 2026, to four years in prison.¹⁰

Pratt fled when the indictment came down in October 2019 and remained a fugitive for more than three years. Spanish National Police arrested him in Madrid on December 21, 2022, on an Interpol Red Notice, with assistance from U.S. Marshals and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.¹¹ He was extradited to San Diego on March 18, 2024 and initially pleaded not guilty. On June 5, 2025, Pratt changed his plea, admitting guilt on two counts: conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, and sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. Judge Sammartino sentenced him on September 8, 2025 to 27 years in federal prison.² His plea agreement waived most appeal rights, though he retained the right to appeal the sentence length.¹²

The $75.6 Million Restitution Order

On February 12, 2026, Judge Sammartino ordered Pratt to pay $75,568,283.47 in restitution to 106 identified victims. Roughly $16.9 million of that reflected the operation’s gross income, and $58.6 million was allocated to specific victim losses. Individual awards ranged from as little as $440 to nearly $7 million, averaging about $553,000 per victim. Pratt’s co-conspirators share joint liability for portions of the award.¹³

Collection is another question. Prosecutors have said Pratt’s known seized assets are modest: about $2,400 in cash and roughly 4.35 Bitcoin worth about $298,000 as of mid-2026.¹⁴

The civil judgment and the criminal restitution order both declared every model release and agreement between the women and GirlsDoPorn or GirlsDoToys void and unenforceable. Pratt no longer holds any rights to the victims’ likenesses, images, or videos, and each victim was given legal authority over the content depicting her.¹³

Lawsuits Against Pornhub’s Parent Company

The litigation reached the platforms that hosted the videos. Pornhub’s parent, Aylo Holdings (formerly MindGeek), has faced both civil suits and a federal criminal resolution over its role in distributing the content.

In December 2020, 40 victims sued Pornhub and MindGeek seeking at least $1 million per plaintiff. Other tube sites including Xvideos, XNXX, and Spankbang began removing GirlsDoPorn videos and disabling related search results after the suit was filed.¹⁵ An initial action on behalf of 50 women later settled for an undisclosed amount.¹⁶

A second suit filed in October 2023 in San Diego federal court on behalf of 61 additional women alleges Aylo ignored “hundreds, if not thousands” of takedown notices from victims and only removed the GirlsDoPorn content after the FBI shut the operation down and brought criminal charges.¹⁶ That case remained active as of mid-2026 but was stayed pending the conclusion of the criminal sentencings.¹²

Separately, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Aylo in December 2023. The company was charged with engaging in monetary transactions involving sex-trafficking proceeds. Under the deal, Aylo agreed to pay $1,844,952.83 in a criminal fine and forfeiture, retain an independent compliance monitor for three years, and make payments to individual victims who establish losses of at least $3,000 each. The charge will be dismissed if Aylo complies with the agreement.¹⁷ More than 120 women have pursued civil claims against the GirlsDoPorn network and the platforms that hosted the content.¹⁴

1
Courthouse News Service. GirlsDoPorn Proposed Statement of Decision
2
U.S. Department of Justice. GirlsDoPorn Owner Michael Pratt Sentenced to 27 Years
3
Los Angeles Times. Lawsuit GirlsDoPorn Videos
4
FBI. FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Michael Pratt Captured in Spain
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Court Orders GirlsDoPorn Video Rights and $18 Million Restitution
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Cameraman Pleads Guilty GirlsDoPorn Sex Trafficking Conspiracy
7
NBC San Diego. GirlsDoPorn Videographer Draws Federal Prison Sentence
8
U.S. Department of Justice. Friend and Business Partner of GirlsDoPorn Owner Sentenced to 14 Years
9
San Diego Union-Tribune. San Diego Judge Sentences GirlsDoPorn Bookkeeper
10
U.S. Department of Justice. Final Charged Defendant in GirlsDoPorn Conspiracy Sentenced
11
ICE. ERO San Diego Assists Arrest of FBI Most Wanted Fugitive
12
San Diego Union-Tribune. San Diego Judge Sentences GirlsDoPorn Mastermind to 27 Years
13
Courthouse News Service. GirlsDoPorn Boss Ordered to Pay $76 Million to Sex Trafficking Victims
14
San Diego Union-Tribune. GirlsDoPorn Owner Ordered to Pay $75.6M in Restitution
15
Vice. Tube Sites Are Scrubbing Girls Do Porn Videos After Pornhub Lawsuit
16
NBC San Diego. 61 Women Sue Pornhub After Hosting Videos Posted by GirlsDoPorn
17
U.S. Department of Justice. Aylo Holdings Deferred Prosecution Agreement