The FBI has reportedly raided the Sedona home of Michael Lacey, owner of Backpage.com. Lacey co-founded Backpage.com in 2004 as a classified ad website, now ranked second behind Craigslist for online classified advertising.
Lacey purchased a $1.6-million home in Oak Creek Canyon just north of West Fork Trail in 2013.
Backpage.com has been taken down and a screenshot overlayed with an FBI notice that reads: “backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, with analytical assistance from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center.
“Other agencies participating in and supporting the enforcement action include the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, the office of the California Attorney General and the office of the Texas Attorney General.”
The FBI reportedly seized the website and conducted the raids under the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act 2017.
“The seizure of the malicious sex marketplace Backpage. com marks an important step forward in the fight against human trafficking,” U.S. Sen. John McCain [R-Ariz.] said in a statement released by his office. “This builds on the historic effort in Congress to reform the law that for too long has protected websites like Backpage from being held liable for enabling the sale of young women and children. Today’s action sends a strong message to Backpage and any other company facilitating online sex trafficking that they will be held accountable for these horrific crimes.”
Lacey was one of the cofounders of the Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly newspaper founded in 1970 by a group of students from Arizona State University. Under Lacey and partner Jim Larkin, New Times Inc. owned 13 newspapers by 2001.
NTI purchased the Village Voice publications in 2006 and changed the company’s name to Village Voice Media Holdings. In 2012, Village Voice Media executives Scott Tobias, Christine Brennan and Jeff Mars bought Village Voice Media’s papers and associated web properties from its founders and formed Voice Media Group, but Larkin and Lacey retained ownership of Backpage.com.
In 2011, investigators alleged Backpage.com’s “adult services” subsection was being used for illegal prostitution and potential human trafficking. Following numerous lawsuits, Backpage removed the “adult services” subsection from its website in 2017. The FBI is directing inquiries to the U.S. Department of Justice. Spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman stated April 6, “The court has ruled that the case remains sealed and we have nothing to report.”
Christopher Fox Graham can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 129, or email editor@larsonnewspapers.com
