Former Phoenix New Times co-owner sentenced to five years in prison in connection with prostitution and sex trafficking of minors

The former co-owner of the tabloid Phoenix New TimesMichael Lacey, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for laundering money from Backpage.com, a site he founded and ran that was accused of prostitution and sex trafficking of minors. His co-owner, Jim Larkin, committed suicide days before his second trial was set to begin in 2023 (the first ended in a mistrial). The New times is known for regularly publishing articles attacking conservatives in politics. These articles are strategically placed next to articles about pedophiles and murderers.

Scott Spear and John “Jed” Brunst, former Backpage executives, were each sentenced to 10 years in prison for numerous crimes. “The defendants and their conspirators obtained more than $500 million by operating an online forum that facilitated the sexual exploitation of countless victims,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a press release. “The defendants thought they could hide their illegal proceeds by laundering the money through shell companies located overseas. But they were wrong.”

Jurors convicted Lacey (pictured above) on one count: laundering money from Backpage to a trust in Hungary for his sons. Prosecutors alleged he tried to hide $16.5 million in profits from the government seizure. He was also fined $3 million by U.S. District Judge Diane Humetawa, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama.

Lacey co-founded the New times with Larkin in 1970. The New times was so successful after its launch in Arizona in 1970 that Lacey and Larkin expanded it to other cities around the country and eventually took over management The voice of the village in New York. However, the duo expanded their operations to Backdoor in the early 2010s as journalism became less lucrative.

Testimony from Eryka Brewster, a young woman who was trafficked as a child, helped lead to a conviction of the site’s former CEO, Carl Ferrer, her pimp, and the ongoing prosecution of Lacey. She said The Arizona Sun Times a year ago: “The only way my trafficker could make money off me was through an ad on Backpage; he didn’t work anywhere else but there.”

Prosecutors presented a case that Backpage published disguised ads for prostitution, which accounted for 90 percent of the site’s revenue. “From September 2010 until its seizure by the United States in April 2018, Backpage was the leading forum for prostitution ads on the Internet,” they said in a Justice Department press release. The complaint cited a sentence Lacey wrote in a draft op-ed that said, “for the first time, the world’s oldest profession has transparency, recordkeeping, and safeguards.”

Ferrer pleaded guilty in 2018 to sex trafficking and money laundering charges. He testified against Lacey and said the “vast majority of Backpage’s revenue” came from ads in its escort section, which Ferrer described as “prostitution ads.” He said Backpage’s attempts to help law enforcement with investigations were “a public relations stunt.”

According to AZCentral, former New times Journalists sent letters to Humetawa praising Lacey for defending the “powerless,” which she found “ironic” because the victims of human trafficking were the powerless individuals.

Lacey, Spear and Brunst, all in their 70s, must turn themselves in by Sept. 11. Attorneys for the men said they will appeal. Prosecutors plan to charge Lacey with additional crimes, up to 34 counts.

In May, Tthe New Times launched what it called its first “membership drive” to raise money. It said it plans to use the money to “hold law enforcement accountable” and to cover political campaigns, among other things. The editor-in-chiefMatt Hennie, is an LGBTQ activist who wrote exclusively about LGBTQ in 2020. There is nothing in the Wikipedia article about The New times about the prosecution of Lacey and Larkin, although they are mentioned as the founders.

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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times And The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to (email address).