Man sentenced to 20 years in prison for tricking women into doing porn

The Department of Justice announced that former GirlsDoPorn producer Ruben Andre Garcia, who also performed in the films, pled guilty to charges of sex trafficking by force, as well as fraud and coercion.

Courthouse News reported that one victim said that "Andre Garcia conned a 17-year-old girl to fly across the country so he could have sex with her and exploit her youth for profit."

Identified as Victim K, she said that it was on her 18th birthday that Garcia flew her to San Diego to perform in a pornographic film. He even picked up a birthday cake for a prop in the film.

The Monday sentencing came after 22 of his victims gave testimony in the California's Southern District court. The women provided victim impact statements, as well, according to the New York Post.

Prosecutors said that "Hotel room doors were at times blocked by camera and recording equipment, and the victims felt powerless and unable to leave."

They went on to say that "The sex for the video shoots was rough and caused many victims pain, and in some cases bleeding. Some victims asked to stop filming. In response, Garcia and others told the victims that they had to continue and finish the videos."

In a statement, acting US attorney Randy Grossman said that "This defendant lured one victim after another with fake modeling ads, false promises and deceptive front companies, ultimately devolving to threats to coerce these women into making sex videos."

"Even when victims told Garcia how the scheme had devastated their lives, he showed no regard for their well-being," Grossman said. "The crime was utterly callous in nature and there is no excuse or justification for his conduct, which was driven purely by greed. The harm inflicted by this defendant will last a lifetime for his victims."

Garcia's method was to post ads on Craigslist looking specifically for "clothed models" to be featured in photoshoots. Fake websites and email addresses were employed to further trick the women into believing in the veracity of the posting.

It was only after women were lured in with the ad for a modeling gig that Garcia would tell them women that he was really looking for them to perform sex acts on camera. The women were mostly between the ages of 18 to 20 years old, and they were promised that the films wouldn't be released online.

But instead, Garcia shared the videos to PornHub, and on GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys websites. Garcia raked in income from this. Women were paid between $3,000 and $5,000 for their performances, and he would bring them to his San Diego location as soon as they agreed.

Women were drugged and plied with alcohol to loosen their inhibitions, and while women were told that the sessions would be 30 minutes, they often lasted for much longer than that. If they didn't go along with it, Garcia threatened to not provide their tickets to get back home, and to post the videos online—which of course he did anyway.

When they became aware that the videos they did were posted online and tried to get them removed, the women were ignored, and their calls blocked.