A jury was unable to reach a verdict on 84 counts against Michael Lacey, the founder of Backpage.com—a site prosecutors say was set up to profit from prostitution—but nevertheless convicted him of a money-laundering charge. Two former executives were found guilty of using the site to facilitate prostitution and of financial crimes, the Arizona Republic reports, and two other executives were acquitted on all charges related to prostitution. Lacey faced 86 charges; just reading them and the verdicts took more than a half-hour. The jury had deliberated for six days. It's the second time prosecution of Lacey has resulted in a mistrial, per Politico. He declined to comment as he left the courthouse.
Backpage carried classified ads for jobs and goods, but the point of the site was prostitution ads, prosecutors said. The verdicts seem to indicate jurors agreed Backpage was facilitating prostitution but didn't agree on Lacey's involvement in those crimes, per the Republic. His first prosecution ended in a mistrial in 2021. The financial count Lacey was convicted of Thursday, which could carry a 20-year prison sentence, involved the transfer of $16.5 million to a bank in Hungary in 2017. The indictment said Lacey was trying to hide the fact that the money came from illegal activity. He had rejected a plea deal just before the trial started that would have provided for five years in prison. (More Backpage.com stories.)
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