CEO for classifieds site Backpage.com arrested on pimping charges

Authorities on Thursday arrested the chief executive of Backpage.com, a classifieds ads website that investigators say is used to facilitate sex trafficking.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), who is running for Senate, apprehended Carl Ferrer on charges of “pimping a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping.”

{mosads}“Backpage and its executives purposely and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the world’s top online brothel,” Harris said in a statement.

Officials in Texas were also involved in the investigation.

Ferrer was arrested in Houston after arriving on a flight from Amsterdam, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said. Authorities also searched Backpage’s Dallas headquarters.

Backpage’s two founders, James Larkin and Michael Lacey, were also charged as part of the probe but have yet to be apprehended by authorities.

Harris’s investigation found that the bulk of the company’s revenue came from advertisements in its “adult” section. The state alleges that “many of the ads for prostitution services involved victims of sex trafficking, including children under the age of 18.”

Harris also alleges that Ferrer used Backpage’s data to create more websites that allowed the company “to expand Backpage’s share of the online sex advertising market.”

Lawmakers in Washington have also taken notice of Backpage. The Senate voted earlier this year to hold Ferrer in contempt for not responding to inquiries in an investigation into sex trafficking.

The company then tried to get a subpoena for documents related to the investigation quashed by the Supreme Court. They said that the subpoena violated first amendment protections.

But the high court voted in September not to hear the case.