Backpage’s Sales Director Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy

This screen grab image obtained April 9, 2018 shows backpage.com and affiliated websites that have been seized by the FBI in Washington,DC. Two co-founders of Backpage and five executives of the classified advertising website have been indicted on charges of enabling prostitution and money laundering.Backpage was abruptly shut down by the US authorities on April 6, 2018 and the indictments, by a federal grand jury in the southwestern state of Arizona, were unsealed on April 9, 2018. "For far too long, Backpage.com existed as the dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex, a place where sex traffickers frequently advertised children and adults alike," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement."But this illegality stops right now," Sessions said. "It can no longer be used by criminals to promote and facilitate human trafficking." Among those indicted were Michael Lacey, 69, and James Larkin, 68, who launched the site in 2004 along with another individual identified only by the initials "C.F."