The former co-owner of the tabloid Phoenix New Times, Michael Lacey, was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for laundering money from backpage.com, a site he founded and ran that was accused of prostitution and sex trafficking of minors. His co-owner, Jim Larkin, killed himself a few days before the second trial was to begin in 2023 (the first trial ended in a mistrial). The New Times is known for regularly running articles attacking conservatives in politics that are strategically placed next to articles about pedophiles and murderers.
Scott Spear and John “Jed” Brunst, former executives with Backpage, were sentenced to 10 years each for numerous crimes. “The defendants and their conspirators obtained more than $500 million from operating an online forum that facilitated the sexual exploitation of countless victims,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in a press release. “The defendants thought they could hide their illicit proceeds by laundering the funds through shell companies in foreign countries. But they were wrong.”
Jurors convicted Lacey (pictured above) on one charge: laundering money from Backpage into a trust in Hungary for his sons. Prosecutors alleged that he tried to hide $16.5 million in profits from the government’s seizure. He was also fined $3 million by U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetawa, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama.
Lacey co-founded the New Times with Larkin in 1970. The New Times was so successful after its launch in Arizona in 1970 that Lacey and Larkin expanded it to other cities around the country, eventually taking over The Village Voice in New York. However, the pair expanded operations to Backdoor in the early 2010s as journalism became less lucrative.
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