Backpage.com Abuse

Were you advertised or exploited on Backpage.com? If so, you may be entitled to financial compensation.

A Backpage.com victim fund is anticipated to be established following a federal criminal trial against Backpage.com to provide financial compensation to those who were advertised on the website.

If you know or suspect your image or personal information was posted on Backpage.com between 2004 and 2018 to sell sex acts, escort services, massages, dates, etc. you may be eligible for financial compensation. 

We are ready to listen and provide a 100% confidential and judgement free consultation on whether your experience may qualify you for financial compensation. Please call 312-458-1000, email intakes@rblaw.net or fill out a free confidential case evaluation form here. 

Our dedicated team of professionals has unmatched experience helping victims of sexual abuse and trafficking and can help you through this confidential process to determine if you may have a financial claim.

Highly experienced team to review your possible Backpage.com claim 

Antonio M. Romanucci Antonio is a Founding Partner of Romanucci & Blandin and a powerhouse in the fight for justice. He represents victims in several high-profile abuse cases, including against schools and clergy.

Gina A. DeBoni Gina is the Managing and Senior Partner of Romanucci & Blandin and a fierce advocate for women and children. She was instrumental in advocating for federal laws to improve internet safety.

Bhavani K. Raveendran Bhavani is a Partner at Romanucci & Blandin, where she represents victims of human trafficking and abuse, including cases involving Backpage.com, municipalities and educational institutions.

Carrie Landau Carrie spent 21 years as a Special Agent with the FBI, where she worked with over 600 victims of trafficking, including those involving Backpage.com. Carrie is currently a consultant through her firm Landau & Associates LLC, and is respected as one of the country's most valuable experts on personal trauma caused by trafficking.

Chris V. Parente Chris is an attorney and a former federal prosecutor who specialized in human trafficking cases.  Chris has worked directly with many human trafficking survivors and assisted many survivors in receiving restitution to compensate them for the damages suffered as part of their trafficking. He currently is a partner at his law firm Cheronis & Parente LLC.

The results Romanucci & Blandin has achieved in many sexual abuse and hazing cases are a testament to our team’s fierce dedication to clients. For example, we are proud to have secured justice for a wide range of people: those abused by clergy or scout leaders, school administrators, teachers, coaches, and counselors, victims of sex trafficking, and those who were forced into a sexual assault as a hazing ritual. The team has represented and currently represents dozens of survivors of rape and childhood sexual abuse in many of the highest-profile abuse cases in the country.

In addition to securing tens of millions of dollars on behalf of survivors in cases against powerful institutions, they have fought for accountability and policy change to help protect future generations of children. Romanucci & Blandin has a proud history of representing survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking while also creating legislative change so victims and survivors can have a cause of action. Our team spent countless hours advocating for federal change and was present at the White House with our client, who stood next to the President in the Oval Office to witness the monumental signing of the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex-Trafficking Act. Furthermore, our experience includes working with victims of the Boy Scouts of America and clergy abuse.

The firm is working collaboratively with attorney Christopher V. Parente - a former federal prosecutor who specialized in human trafficking and was the Human Trafficking Coordinator for the Chicago U.S. Attorney's Office. Chris has dedicated his professional career to assisting survivors of trafficking and now serves as a Founding Member of Cheronis & Parente LLC. 

The attorneys have formed a strategic partnership with former FBI Special Agent and consultant Carrie Landau. As one of the country's most respected and valuable experts on the personal trauma created by human trafficking, Carrie adds unmatched experience and value to the legal team pursuing these claims against Backapge.com. She currently serves as a consultant through her firm Landau & Associates LLC. 

The story of Backpage.com and its impact on victims

Backpage.com before the shutdown 

At its peak, Backpage.com was considered one of the largest online sources of sex work online, despite its origins as a Craigslist-like online marketplace of classified ads for jobs, housing and other for-sale items. The New York Times reported that the website’s revenue reached $135 million in 2014, and an appraiser believed Backpage’s parent company was worth over $600 million in 2015. Underneath those numbers was a world of coercion and sexual abuse for some women and girls caught up in sex trafficking rings by pimps and others involved in commercial sex services.  

Taking down Backpage.com

Law enforcement and prosecutors around the country spent years attempting to shutter the website or its services, claiming that Backpage was operating listings that involved the sexual exploitation of individuals, including cases of child sex trafficking.

Backpage and sites like it attempt to hide behind the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which provides protections for websites that host user-created content. Craigslist and other sites that had previously hosted content that included escort and commercial sex listings in their online marketplaces chose to remove those sections to end the ongoing and potential involvement of law enforcement officials in their day-to-day business of running their sites. Backpage.com’s lax policies and lack of oversight made it a haven for sex trafficking. 

California was the first state in the country to begin a legal push against Backpage, led by prosecutors such as Maggy Krell and then-Attorney General Kamala Harris. A cascade of legal efforts followed, eventually resulting in the Department of Justice pursuing criminal cases against the website’s founders and executives for money laundering and illegal commercial sex promotion.  

Backpage.com corporate executives Michael Lacey, John Brunst and Scott Spear, all of Arizona, were convicted by a federal jury at the end of 2023. Carl Ferrer, of Texas, also pleaded guilty to his role in the company. Brunst and Spear were found guilty of “promoting prostitution business enterprises and multiple counts of money laundering, including conspiracy offenses.”  Before the owners' personal legal accountability, Backpage.com was pulled down from the company’s website in 2018 after being seized by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). To this day, the FBI’s seizure notice remains affixed to Backpage.com’s homepage. 

Resources available for victims of sex trafficking and sexual abuse: 

• National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888 

• Office for Victims of Crime

• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

• Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) and its National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE (4673)). 

Advocacy and Education 

Our client, Yvonne Ambrose, had the heartbreaking experience of having her teenage daughter, Desiree Robinson, become a victim of sex trafficking and later murdered on Christmas Eve 2016. Yvonne dedicated herself not only to justice for Desiree but also to doing everything she could to prevent other young victims and their families from suffering. The attorneys at Romanucci & Blandin advocated for change with her and, along with others, Yvonne testified before a United States Senate Committee examining sex trafficking and the role of the internet. Our team’s fierce dedication contributed to the passage of the federal SESTA/FOSTA law, which reformed the solicitation of minors on the Internet. Yvonne and our attorneys, Gina A. DeBoni and Bhavani K. Raveendran were in the White House when the bill was signed into law. Furthermore, the activity in this case also contributed to the shutdown of the website Backpage.com, which was notorious for its solicitation of minors. 

Talk with our Team 

The experienced sex trafficking and sexual abuse attorneys at Romanucci & Blandin are ready to help and listen! If you would like a confidential consultation to determine if you may be eligible for financial compensation, please call 312-458-1000, email intakes@rblaw.net or fill out a free confidential case evaluation form here. 

Disclaimer: The content found on this page is not legal assistance and contacting the sexual abuse and trafficking lawyers at Romanucci & Blandin’s law office for a free consultation regarding personal injury cases and sexual abuse and trafficking claims does not constitute an attorney-client relationship.