Friday, October 7, 2016

Backpage.com CEO Arrested In Houston, Over Human Sex Trafficking

The CEO of Backpage.com, an online website with US headquarters in Dallas, which has gained notoriety among the law enforcement community for its blatant posts of ads for prostitution, has been arrested in Houston. Carl Ferrer, the CEO of the company, was arrested after stepping off a flight from Amsterdam. Attorney General Ken Paxton called Backpage.com "the largest advertiser of adult escort services in the United States". The site is owned by a company based in the Netherlands. The company--which ostensibly offers up classified ad posting across a large number of other categories--came to prominence after other, online sites such as Craiglist shut down the posting of escort services on their sites. Texas AG Paxton said the arrest shows that "Texas doesn't tolerate human trafficking."