Adult content giant Pornhub has admitted to profiting from sex trafficking and will pay more than $1.8 million to resolve federal charges.
On Dec. 21, Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo Holdings, reached an agreement to resolve a federal charge of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions involving sex trafficking proceeds, Fortune reports. As part of the deal, the Montreal-based company will pay more than $1.8 million to the U.S. government, along with separate payments to the women who were victims of sex trafficking by having the videos posted without their consent.
The charges against the streaming giant will remain in effect for three years until the appointment of an independent monitor.
“It is our hope that this resolution, which includes certain agreed payments to the women whose images were posted on the company’s platforms and an independent monitorship, brings some measure of closure to those negatively affected,” Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said.
Prosecutors say Pornhub “knowingly enriched itself by turning a blind eye” to the complaints from victims who told the site the videos were posted without their consent. The charges stem from Aylo hosting videos and accepting payments from a now-defunct film production company, GirlsDoPorn.
Operators of that former production company were convicted
of sex trafficking charges, including coercing young women into engaging in sexual acts on camera that were then posted on Pornhub and other adult sites without their consent. Aylo Holdings is accused of accepting more than $100,000 between 2017 and 2020 that the company either knew or should have known came from GirlsDoPorn sex trafficking operations.Additionally, Aylo, which makes its money through licensing agreements, advertisements, and subscriptions, reportedly accepted
roughly $764,000 in payments from advertisers attributable to GirlsDoPorn from 2017 to 2020. Now Aylo says it “deeply regrets” hosting content from GirlsDoPorn on its free and paid adult websites.RELATED CONTENT: Diddy Hit With Second Sexual Assault Lawsuit, Victim Claims He Drugged And Recorded Her