As convictions begin to mount we are here to keep you up to date on the latest developments of the Backpage scandal Tony Ortega has been so curiously quiet about since the subpoenas first started rolling out.
Today we got word of a July 29th sentencing date being set for the sales and marketing director of Backpage.com, following his earlier guilty plea of conspiring to facilitate prostitution in yet another of Backpage’s seemingly endless schemes.
We have said from the beginning that many convictions would result from the criminal enterprise once known as Backpage.
This week we witness the start of that justice.
On April 10, 2019, one man from Claymont, Delaware and two from Wilmington were convicted of trafficking minors for sex via Backpage.com throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Dkyle Jamal Bridges, a 33-year-old from Claymont, and two Wilmington men, Kristian Jones, 25, and Anthony Jones, 35, were found guilty of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion with adults and minors, and sex trafficking three minors by force, fraud or coercion.
Recently we’ve been taking a look at the nefarious, often turbulent, tenure of one Tony Ortega during the dying months of the Village Voice. We saw how under Ortega’s leadership, The Village Voice’s circulation dropped from 240,265 to 213,358 in the space of a year. That’s a crushing 11% drop… and it was only the beginning.
We saw how Ortega, now overseeing a giant publishing boondoggle, was having a decidedly difficult time finding an audience willing to read his free give-away paper.
Obstruction of justice is a phrase we’re hearing a lot in the news today. But it doesn’t just have to do with presidential politics. Obstruction of justice can take many forms. Like that time when Tony Ortega’s sleazy Backpage bosses, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, sold the Village Voice.
They split the sale, removing from the offer the Backpage sex ad site. This of course was the paper’s goose that laid the golden eggs.
“Backpage exists solely so that people can freely express themselves—sometimes in ways that make other people uncomfortable. We’re First Amendment extremists that way. Always have been.”
So begins one of Tony Ortega’s many ardent defenses for his sex peddling bosses at the Backpage. “First Amendment extremist”, what is that phrase even meant to convey if not a brotherhood of narrow-minded, radicalism he shares with his fellow ‘extremists’ everywhere.
Tony Ortega
In our article “Tony Ortega’s Village Voice: A Backpage Front” we drew your attention to the grand scheme behind The Village Voice and Backpage, specifically how they were from the beginning planned to be separated in order to fully concentrate on the mega profits produced by Backpage in its lust to sell young women for sexual services.
It bears repeating, however, that this came as no surprise to Tony Ortega who from the beginning was in on the scam.
We recently reported that fifty women are suing Salesforce, alleging the company profited by helping Backpage to engage in sex trafficking.
Too long the story of Tony Ortega’s bosses and their worldwide human trafficking ring has lingered in the shadows, on the periphery of other news stories favored by the mainstream media.
Today we are happy to report this appears to be changing, as NBC news picked up the Salesforce story and has been bringing it to national attention.
In Greek mythology the Hydra was a many headed monster that guarded the entrance to the underworld. Part of what made this beast so terrifying was that whenever one of its heads was cut off, another two would grow in its place.
While the Hydra was never more than a myth, the Backpage was a chilling reality. And just like the multi-headed beast at the mouth of hell, Backpage is proving how hard it is to kill.
This week we’ve been looking at the enduring legacy of destruction in the wake of the only underage sex peddling platform personally endorsed by Tony Ortega.
We saw how the murder in Atlanta ties directly back to Backpage’s thinly veiled revamp of its prostitution platform, rebranded now as ‘adult dating’. But the problem continues to spread across state lines.
As criminals benefit from technology in communication, wide distribution and anonymity, law enforcement agencies find themselves using the same platforms to stop those illegal revenues and gather evidence.
It’s that time again! Time for your Backpage Sex Peddling trial update, brought to you by Tony Ortega and his criminally indicted bosses.
This week, we heard the first words Backpage.com co-founder and Tony Ortega’s former boss, Michael Lacey, offered about allegations he faces for running a prostitution ring and shady money laundering operation.
“Nonsense!” was all he said before his attorney added that his client had no further comment. Nonsense, as if to imply that all the lives he and the people who worked for him ruined and left discarded behind them were nothing but a joke to him.
All the sit-ins and sign-waving on the news lately in the wake of the Senate’s confirmation of the Court’s newest Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, have gotten us thinking about the power of protest.
Sometimes even the littlest gestures can have big impacts. Take for instance the time 15 protesters stood outside the Golleher Alumni House at California State University, Fullerton, chanting “No sex trafficking” in light of a speaker who was invited by two Cal State Fullerton alumni chapters.
