The Star: March 21, 2024
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>March</strong> <strong>21</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
4<br />
NEWS<br />
• From page 1<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were taken to motel<br />
rooms where the footage was<br />
filmed.<br />
<strong>The</strong> videos were then posted<br />
to the company’s subscriptionbased<br />
website, while shorter<br />
versions were posted to some of<br />
the world’s largest pornography<br />
sites.<br />
<strong>The</strong> videos were viewed<br />
more than a billion times – a<br />
conservative figure that doesn’t<br />
take into account pirated copies<br />
of the files.<br />
Wolfe admitted to filming<br />
about 100 videos and faced a<br />
maximum of life in prison for his<br />
offending.<br />
Pratt went on the run in 2019<br />
and was on the FBI’s list of 10<br />
Most Wanted Fugitives before<br />
his arrest in Spain in December<br />
2022.<br />
He has recently been extradited<br />
to the US and is expected to<br />
make his initial appearance in a<br />
San Diego federal courtroom.<br />
US District Judge Janis<br />
Sammartino told Wolfe: “It’s my<br />
view that you played an essential<br />
role.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> San Diego Union-Tribune<br />
newspaper reported Wolfe’s lawyers<br />
filed documents to the court<br />
claiming he and Pratt were “not<br />
particularly close friends”.<br />
Further, the lawyers claimed<br />
Pratt offered him a job only after<br />
the 2011 earthquake where the<br />
“economy ground to a halt, leaving<br />
young people like Wolfe with<br />
few job prospects”.<br />
Wolfe claimed Pratt said he<br />
needed “technical help to run<br />
his business” and the job offer<br />
included a flight to the US, an<br />
apartment and pay of $500 a<br />
week.<br />
While he started “in the office<br />
maintaining the computer servers,<br />
handling payroll and taking<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
‘It’s my view you played a substantial role’<br />
LIES: Matthew Wolfe persuaded women to appear in adult videos, telling them the videos<br />
would never be posted online or released in the US – despite knowing the women’s<br />
identities were being exposed by his friend and boss Michael Pratt (right). PHOTO: GETTY<br />
care of other routine office tasks”<br />
he “eventually began filming<br />
videos and taking a more handson<br />
role within the company”, the<br />
Union-Tribune reported.<br />
While Wolfe’s team told the<br />
court Pratt was the “undisputed<br />
leader” and “called all the shots”,<br />
the judge did not agree.<br />
<strong>The</strong> victims’ impact statements<br />
included:<br />
“A decade ago, Wolfe sentenced<br />
me to a lifetime of fear, anxiety,<br />
and loneliness,” one woman said.<br />
“I have lived with the shame,<br />
the fear, the blame, and the consequences<br />
long enough and so<br />
have the other survivors.<br />
“It is now Mr Wolfe’s turn to<br />
carry that burden.”<br />
Wolfe’s actions drove some of<br />
the women to attempt suicide –<br />
and many of them to seriously<br />
consider it.<br />
“Every day since meeting Mr<br />
Wolfe, I have had to make a very<br />
conscious decision just to stay<br />
alive. Living is a daily debate with<br />
myself, not a certainty,” said one<br />
woman.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re are days I wish I had<br />
died . . . because dying would<br />
have been less painful.<br />
“All I want to do is hide . . . I<br />
dream of fading into oblivion.”<br />
Two of Wolfe’s co-offenders<br />
were sentenced last year –<br />
recruiter, actor and producer<br />
Ruben Garcia to 20 years in<br />
prison and cameraman <strong>The</strong>odore<br />
Gyi to four years.<br />
“Wolfe lied to and preyed<br />
on vulnerable young women,<br />
subjecting them to years of<br />
relentless harassment, fear and<br />
mental anguish,” said Stacey<br />
Moy, special agent in charge of<br />
the FBI San Diego Field Office.<br />
– NZ Herald<br />
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