CEO of Backpage arrested on charges of pimping

Carl Ferrer, 55, CEO of Backpage.com

For years, dozens of organizations have been on the heels of Dallas-based website Backpage, linked to sex trafficking and prostitution.  Because of a major investigation launched against the site, Carl Ferrer, CEO of the websitehas been arrested, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday.

Ferrer was arrested on charges of pimping and related crimes in California at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport around 2 p.m. Thursday. He was returning from Amsterdam, where the company also has offices.  Texas will also be investigating.  

"A lengthy joint investigation by the offices of the Texas and California attorneys general uncovered evidence that adult and child sex trafficking victims were forced into prostitution through escort ads that appeared repeatedly on Backpage," read a release from Paxton's office sent later Thursday.

Texas investigators were executing a search warrant at Backpage's offices at the corner of Oak Lawn and Maple Avenues in Dallas during the arrest. 

“Backpage is the single largest advertiser of adult escort services" in the United States, Paxton said. The company “advertises sex acts for money,” and earns millions of dollars in advertising profits annually, he added.

An indictment filed in late September and obtained Thursday by News 8 cites 17 incidents between 2012 and 2015 in which sex trafficking advertisements were purportedly posted on Backpage.

The site made $2 million per month in advertisements from October 2014 to May 2015, the indictment states.

The Texas attorney general said Backpage exploited both adults and children for financial gain.