Monder Law Group - News
CEO of Backpages Criminally Charged With Pimping In California
CEO of Backpages Criminally Charged With Pimping In California
This is the first time in California History a CEO of company of this magnitude is being held responsible for the actions of other users on its platform in regards to pimping and pandering of children. The 55-year-old, Carl Ferrer, was extradited to California last week to answer to these charges. This means a judge in the superior court reviewed an arrest warrant from law enforcement and signed off on this case saying there is enough information to raise to the level of probable cause that Mr. Ferrer is a co-conspirator in this criminal enterprise of pimping minors.
The California of Justice has spent the last three years investigating the inter-workings of this company and personal involvement of upper management in the sex trafficking industry. The CEO of the company Mr. Ferrer is looking at a maximum 22 years in prison if convicted.
We should take a closer look into the responsibilities required by Mr. Carl Ferrer.
In any sort of pimping and pandering case, the prosecution will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ferrer received financial support from the earnings of someone engaged in prostitution. This means at a minimum he must have known that he was aiding and abetting those involved in prostitution. Using the backpage.com platform Mr. Ferrer was benefiting from subscribers that paid his company to facilitate the solicitation of prostitution. The issue is whether he knew that criminal behavior was taking place and contributed to the facilitation of online prostitution. It is easy to prove that he gained from this illegal enterprise through subscribers but is it enough to connect him directly as the CEO of the company as being help personally responsible for this conspiracy charge in aiding and abetting the facilitation of online prostitution on his own platform.
This is where the argument can cut both ways. Mr. Ferrer probably has many programmers and other individuals at the company that handle the day to day operation so it will be extremely important for the prosecution to try and pull witnesses from the company directly to testify against Mr. Ferrer at trial.
The fact that this has been an ongoing investigation for the past three years leads us to believe that there is communications directly with the company from subscribers acting as prostitutes and emails from Mr. Ferrer directing employees of backpage.com to support or maintain the facilitation of prostitution.
Encouragement of another to become a prostitute is the cornerstone of a pimping and pandering charge and it can be done with the threat of violence or promises of other means. Most likely, there is information to believe that backpage.com would encourage this behavior on their platform by persuading subscribers to continue with this illegal endeavor.
It will be interesting to see how a jury interprets the elements of these charges based on the directives of a company that is already known for hosting online prostitution. If the prosecution prevails, this will lead to a floodgate of other online companies like Craigslist and Eros Guide to be under the same sort of scrutiny.
If you have questions about pimping and pandering charges in San Diego, please feel free to contact San Diego Criminal Defense Attorney Vik Monder at 619-405-0063 or visit San Diego Criminal Lawyer.
