Federal prosecutors have hit the owners and two employees of the popular adult website GirlsDoPorn with sex trafficking charges as women say they were lied to and coerced into shooting sex scenes.

At least 22 women who were featured on the site have sued the owners, alleging that the pornographers lured them to locations under the pretense of modelling work and used coercion to get them to participate in videos once the true nature of the work was revealed.

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In order to get the women to participate, the defendants convinced them they could remain anonymous and that their videos would not be posted on the internet. A statement from the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of California notes that: “In reality, the entire purpose was to post the videos on the internet. According to financial records, the websites have generated more than $17 million in revenue.”

“I was in a state of panic when I first found out,” one of the alleged victims said in court, Ars Technica reports.

I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it.

“I kept asking if it would be shared with anyone here and they said ‘No, it would be in Australia only,’” she said.

The site’s owner Michael Pratt, lead videographer Matthew Wolfe, and actor Ruben Andre Garcia are charged with sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. They are also charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking along with administrative assistant Valerie Moser.

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