SAN DIEGO (AP) — The founder of a California-based porn empire that recruited women with false modeling offers pleaded guilty to sex trafficking charges in a federal court, authorities said.

Michael James Pratt pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in San Diego, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He faces a possible life sentence when he is sentenced Sept. 25.

Pratt, 42, was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list when he was arrested in Madrid in 2022, three years after he fled while facing sex trafficking charges.

Federal prosecutors said Pratt and his co-defendants used force, fraud and coercion to recruit hundreds of women, many of whom were in their late teens, for their adult videos.

A New Zealand native, he founded the now-defunct GirlsDoPorn website in San Diego. In 2019

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