Greg's Corner

Top Backpage exec pleads guilty

Backpage founders Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey

This past Friday, the sales and marketing director of Backpage, 49-year-old Dan Hyer, pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to facilitate prostitution. Hyer entered into a plea deal with prosecutors that could see him sentenced to five years in prison with a $250,000 fine. Hyer’s testimony included the admission that Backpage allegedly knew that many of the ads they were allowing were illegal.

In exchange for his guilty plea, fifty charges of facilitating prostitution and 17 money laundering charged will be dropped. Reports say that it’s unclear if Hyer will testify against other Backpage executives, but to have that many charges against him dropped it would seem highly unlikely if he didn’t. The sentencing date for Hyer is set for November 19th while the remaining Backpage executives, including founders Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey, are set to face trial in 2020.

With Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer already pleading guilty and now Hyer, are we seeing the dominoes beginning to fall? Will more indicted Backpage executives enter into plea deals so the big fish can receive heavy sentences? I’m beginning to think that maybe Larkin and Lacey will not escape the prison time they rightfully deserve. It’s like watching the dissolution of a mob family while the underlings turn state’s evidence, which if you think about it Backpage was nothing more than an organized crime ring.