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PHOENIX (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Arizona stated Tuesday they are going to retry a co-founder of the profitable labeled web site Backpage.com on dozens of prostitution facilitation and cash laundering costs that alleged he participated in a scheme to promote intercourse adverts.
A jury in mid-November 2023 convicted Michael Lacey of 1 rely of worldwide concealment cash laundering, acquitted him on one other cash laundering rely and deadlocked on 84 different costs.
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That marked the second trial for Lacey, whose first trial resulted in a mistrial after a decide concluded in 2021 that prosecutors had too many references to baby intercourse trafficking in a case the place nobody confronted such a cost.
On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a proper discover of retrial in federal courtroom in Phoenix in compliance with a deadline U.S. Decide Diane Humetewa set in an order on Jan. 10.
“America information this discover of intent to retry Defendant Michael Lacy on the 84 counts for which the jury was unable to succeed in a verdict and requests that the courtroom set the case for retrial,” U.S. Lawyer Gary Restaino wrote within the five-page discover.
Lacey’s lawyer, Paul Cambria, declined remark simply after the discover was filed late Tuesday.
“I’ve none for the time being,” he instructed The Related Press.
Lacey, 75, was beforehand tried on a complete of 86 felony counts within the case towards him and 4 different Backpage staff.
John Brunst, Backpage’s chief monetary officer, was convicted of 1 rely of conspiracy to violate the Journey Act — a federal legislation barring using interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution in violation of state legal guidelines — and greater than 30 cash laundering counts.
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Scott Spear, government vp for the location, was convicted of 1 rely of conspiracy to violate the Journey Act, greater than a dozen counts of facilitation of prostitution and about 20 cash laundering counts.
Two different former Backpage staff had been acquitted of a conspiracy cost and dozens of counts of facilitation of prostitution.
Earlier than launching Backpage, Lacey based the Phoenix New Occasions weekly newspaper with James Larkin, who was charged within the case and died by suicide in late July a few week earlier than the second trial towards Backpage’s operators was scheduled to start.
Lacey and Larkin held possession pursuits in different weeklies comparable to The Village Voice and finally offered their newspapers in 2013. However they held onto Backpage, which authorities say generated $500 million in prostitution-related income from its inception in 2004 till 2018, when it was shut down by the federal government.
Prosecutors had argued that Backpage’s operators ignored warnings to cease working prostitution adverts, some involving youngsters. The operators had been accused of giving free adverts to intercourse employees and cultivating preparations with others who labored within the intercourse commerce to get them to submit adverts with the corporate.
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Backpage’s operators stated they by no means allowed adverts for intercourse and assigned staff and automatic instruments to attempt to delete such adverts. Their authorized group maintained the content material on the location was protected by the First Modification.
Prosecutors additionally stated Lacey used cryptocurrency and wired cash to overseas financial institution accounts to launder revenues earned from the location’s advert gross sales after banks raised issues that they had been getting used for unlawful functions.
A U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace report launched in June 2021 stated the FBI’s capability to establish victims and intercourse traffickers had decreased considerably after Backpage was seized by the federal government, as a result of legislation enforcement was accustomed to the location and Backpage was usually attentive to requests for info.
In 2018, the location’s gross sales and advertising director, Dan Hyer, had pleaded responsible to conspiring to facilitate prostitution and acknowledged he participated in a scheme to offer free adverts to prostitutes to win over their enterprise. Ferrer additionally pleaded responsible to a separate federal conspiracy case in Arizona and to state cash laundering costs in California.
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Related Press author Scott Sonner contributed to this report from Reno, Nevada.
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