February 2, 2026 – SAN DIEGO, CA – Douglas Wiederhold, a male performer in the massive GirlsDoPorn sex-trafficking conspiracy 
led by Michael Pratt, was sentenced in federal court on Friday to four years in prison. Wiederhold was paid to perform in 71 adult sex videos that exploited victims.
Wiederhold is the last of seven charged defendants to be sentenced for their roles in the multimillion-dollar criminal empire that lured young women into making sex videos through lies, coercion, and manipulation, and then broadcasting their abuse to millions online.
“Each defendant’s actions unleashed profound harm on hundreds of victims, and today the final conspirator was held accountable,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon. “These strong sentences reflect the bravery of the victims in coming forward and speaking of their abuse. Without them, justice would have been impossible. The Department of Justice thanks these remarkable women.”
Pratt was the owner and operator of the pornography website girlsdoporn.com. Girlsdoporn.com featured sex videos of young adult women appearing in their first pornographic video. Girlsdoporn.com charged visitors a subscription fee to access the website’s content. Wiederhold was part of the conspiracy from the start, starting in at least January 2011 through at least March 2012. The young adult women were paid by Pratt to perform sex acts with Wiederhold. Pratt was the camera operator; Pratt also directed the video shoots. Wiederhold was a salaried employee who sometimes traveled with Pratt to pick the young women up at the airport and drive them to the location of the video shoots.
Wiederhold knew Pratt recruited women from all over the United States to appear in these videos. If the women lived far from San Diego, Pratt would book travel and pay for these women to fly to San Diego for their video shoot. Pratt would also pay for the hotels or short-term rentals in San Diego where the video shoots would occur.
At Pratt’s direction, Wiederhold lied to the women, assuring them that the videos would not be posted on the internet. Pratt instructed Wiederhold to tell the women that the videos were only going onto a DVD to a collector in a foreign country or posted to VHS for a small number of viewers in Australia. Wiederhold knew that Pratt made his money by posting the videos onto girlsdoporn.com, where the videos were publicly available on the internet to anyone willing to pay a fee. Wiederhold also knew that Pratt was posting snippets of the videos to Pornhub and other porn websites to drive traffic to girlsdoporn.com.
GirlsDoPorn Owner Michael Pratt Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking Charges in a San Diego Courtroom
Even after learning that the sex videos were being posted on the internet, Wiederhold falsely assured at least two women that the videos would not be posted publicly. Further, Wiederhold stood by while Pratt provided false assurances to the women that their videos would not be posted on the internet. Wiederhold would act in the pornographic videos with the women, after the false assurances were made. Women told the agents that they trusted Wiederhold, because he treated them as a friend and helped them feel comfortable.
At Friday’s hearing, six of the defendant’s victims urged the court to hand down the maximum sentence. One woman explained that “by putting me online and exposing me to the world without my consent, [Wiederhold] didn’t just humiliate me, he branded me …. I spent years unable to look my own family in the eyes.”
Another woman told the court, “The person I was before this happened no longer exists. I am a shell of who I used to be.”
A third addressed the defendant directly, “throughout my experience with you, deception was constant. You lied about who you were, even using a false name to conceal your identity. You misrepresented your intentions and the reality of what I was being drawn into. Nothing about my interactions with you was honest. Every part of it was built on deception … After you got what you wanted from me, you left me alone, scared, humiliated, and overwhelmed by what had just happened.”
Related: San Diego, California Man Receives a Twenty-Year Sentence in GirlsDoPorn Sex Trafficking Conspiracy
U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino told the defendant that even though he left the conspiracy over 10 years ago, “what happened in this case had long lasting harm. Some of the damage [to the women] will be lifelong.”
The defendant was ordered to self-surrender on March 27, 2026, at noon. Judge Sammartino set a restitution hearing for March 6, 2026, at 2 p.m.
The GirlsDoPorn investigation and prosecution spanned years, involving FBI agents, FBI analysts, the U.S. Marshal Service, victim advocates, and prosecutors who worked tirelessly to secure justice for the victims. Multiple co-conspirators have been convicted in connection with the scheme.
DEFENDANT Case Number 23cr1202-JLS
Douglas Wiederhold Age: 42 Sentenced to four years on January 30, 2026
SUMMARY OF CHARGES
Conspiracy (Sex Trafficking)– Title 18, U.S.C., Section 371
Maximum penalty: Five years and $250,000 fine
DEFENDANTS Case Number 19cr4488-JLS
Michael Pratt Age: 42 Sentenced to 27 years on September 8, 2025
Matthew Wolfe Age: 43 Sentenced to 14 years on March 20, 2024
Ruben Andre Garcia Age: 36 Sentenced to 20 years on June 4, 2021
Theodore Gyi Age: 47 Sentenced to four years on November 9, 2022
Valorie Moser Age: 43 Sentenced to two years on December 12, 2025
SUMMARY OF CHARGES
Sex Trafficking Conspiracy – Title 18, U.S.C., Section 1594
Maximum penalty: Life in prison and $250,000 fine
Sex Trafficking – Title 18, U.S.C., Section 1591
Mandatory Minimum: Fifteen years in prison
Maximum penalty: Life in prison and $250,000 fine
Conspiracy (Sex Trafficking) – Title 18, U.S.C., Section 371
Maximum penalty: Five years and $250,000 fine
DEFENDANT Case Number 23cr0111-JLS
Alexander Foster Sentenced to one year on April 28, 2023
SUMMARY OF CHARGE
Conspiracy (Stalking) – Title 18, U.S.C., Section 371
Maximum penalty: Five years and $250,000 fine
INVESTIGATING AGENCIES
FBI – Southern District of California
San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force
U.S. Marshals Service
Source: DOJ Release
