A California man will serve time behind bars for fraudulently coercing young women to appear in adult videos.
The Associated Press reports 31-year-old Ruben Andre Garcia—a producer/performer for the now-defunct website GirlsDoPorn—received a 20-year prison sentence in federal court Monday, nearly six months after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion.
Garcia admitted he and the owners of the website conspired to recruit women under false pretenses to appear in the outlet’s pornographic films. He and his five co-defendants reportedly told the women the videos would not be posted online and would only be distributed to private customers residing outside the United States. However, prosecutors say the defendants had no intentions of keeping those promises, as they planned to release the videos on fee-based websites and share snippets on third-party platforms like Pornhub.
“This defendant lured one victim after another with fake modeling ads, false promises and deceptive front companies, ultimately devolving to threats to coerce these women into making sex videos,” acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement. “Even when victims told Garcia how the scheme had devastated their lives, he showed no regard for their well-being. The crime was utterly callous in nature and there is no excuse or justification for his conduct, which was driven purely by greed. The harm inflicted by this defendant will last a lifetime for his victims. Hopefully today’s sentence will offer them a sense of justice.”
Prosecutors say Garcia lured the victims through fraudulent websites, email addresses, and Craigslist ads that sought clothed models. Once he and his co-defendants received a response, they would inform the women they were actually seeking porn actresses for one-day shoots that would pay anywhere between $3,000 to $5,000. If the woman agreed, Garcia would book her a plane ticket within the following day or two.
Federal agents claim the victims were given alcohol and marijuana after their arrival, and were forced to film subsequent videos stating they were not under the influence of any substance. They were also allegedly told the shoots would take only 30 minutes, but typically lasted for several hours. During that time, the women were subjected to sex that was both rough and painful, so much so that some of them asked the team to stop filming. The victims were allegedly told they had to complete the scene or the production company would sue them, cancel their flights home, or post the videos online. The scenes were reportedly shot in hotel rooms, where the doors were sometimes blocked by camera equipment, causing the victims to feel “powerless and unable to leave.”
“Ruben Garcia chose to exploit and deceive these young women for his personal satisfaction and financial gain and today he was held accountable for those decisions,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner said. “Today’s sentence is the first in this case, however it is definitely not the last. I hope this sentence serves as a start to the healing process and brings some sense of justice for these young women, each with their whole life ahead of them.”
