• US authorities are looking to seize more than $1.2m in cryptocurrency from Kiwi pornographer Michael James Pratt.
• Pratt, extradited from Spain, is awaiting trial in the US for sex trafficking charges.
• Matthew Wolfe, Pratt’s associate, was jailed for 14 years for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

American authorities have moved to seize more than $1.2 million in cryptocurrency from a Kiwi pornographer awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

Michael James Pratt, the Christchurch-born Kiwi behind a controversial US porn empire, was arrested at a Madrid hotel in 2022 after allegedly going on the run from the FBI.

He was extradited from Spain to the United States and is currently in prison, having been denied bail, as he awaits trial.

Court documents obtained by the Herald show that Pratt faces a three-week jury trial starting on September 2. He has pleaded not guilty.

Childhood friend, fellow Kiwi, and employee of GirlsDoPorn, Matthew Isaac Wolfe was jailed last year for tricking scores of women into becoming porn stars.

The Herald has also learned that US authorities have laid a forfeiture order for three Bitcoin cryptocurrency accounts which amounts to almost NZ$1.3m.

The order, lodged in the US District Court Southern District of California against Pratt, Wolfe, as well as actor and producer Ruben Andree Garcia aka “Jonathan”, Theodore Wilfred Gyi aka “Teddy”, Valorie Moser, and Amberly Dee Nored aka “Amberlyn Clark”, seeks forfeiture of various electronic devices, including phones and hard drives, as well as three Bitcoin crypto accounts totalling almost NZ$1.3m at today’s prices.

In December 2022, Pratt was the 529th person to be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, which was established by controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 1950.

New Zealander Michael James Pratt has been named on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. Photo / Supplied

Pratt’s most wanted poster, circulated around the world, offered a reward up to US$100,000 for information leading to his arrest.

“From approximately 2012 to October 2019, in the Southern District of California and elsewhere, Michael James Pratt and others allegedly participated in a conspiracy to recruit young adult and minor women to engage in commercial sex acts by force,” the FBI’s wanted poster alleged.

Pratt, who moved from New Zealand to the United States in 2009, was wanted on 19 charges, including sex trafficking, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor and money laundering.

It was alleged that he used pornography to rake in earnings of US$17m ($30m).

Michael James Pratt is awaiting trial in September. Photo / Supplied

The women, many of whom were struggling financially, were allegedly offered between US$3000 and US$5000 as payment, as well as an “all expenses” trip to San Diego, authorities claim.

“They repeatedly assure the victims they will never publish the videos online and that the women will remain anonymous,” according to a civil claim which has subsequently been successful in the US courts.

Wolfe was sentenced to 14 years in prison last March after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion.

Kurt Bayer is the NZ Herald South Island Head of News based in Christchurch. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2011.