A US court is to seek evidence from professional services giant Grant Thornton’s Irish business concerning an alleged child sexual abuse material case involving one of the world’s largest pornography companies, MindGeek which owns Pornhub
erena Fleites took the US case against MindGeek and others in 2021. She alleges MindGeek runs one of the world’s largest human-trafficking ventures and had monetised child sexual abuse material of her. She further alleged Mindgeek used its international corporate structure of “hundreds of sham shell corporations” to mask the process and launder payments.
In July, a US court denied MindGeek and other defendants’ efforts to dismiss the case. It ordered the case to enter a jurisdictional discovery phase until December 30.
Earlier this month, a request by Fleites to issue letters requesting evidence for the trial from Grant Thornton subsidiaries in Ireland, Canada, Cyprus and Luxembourg was granted by a US court.
Grant Thornton Ireland provided auditing services to four Mindgeek-owned companies, including MG Billing, which the US court documents say collected subscriptions from MindGeek’s premium users. The professional services firm resigned as auditor last year in the aftermath of allegations of unlawful content on the Pornhub website.
Fleites asked the court to approve the request to send the letters to Grant Thornton Ireland as it may help “to shed light on where the money flows” and “the true ownership of the porn sites that generated” revenue. The court agreed with Fleites and granted the motion.
Defendants opposed the letters, claiming they were irrelevant because “no MindGeek entity organised under Irish law is a defendant”. They further argued MG Billing was “not a party to this case.”
According to a proposed letter submitted to the US court last week, the US court is to ask the High Court of Ireland to compel the production of documents and appearance to give testimony under oath by Grant Thornton Ireland.
Documents to be requested included items such as contracts and agreements relating to services provided by Grant Thornton to any MindGeek entity and documents concerning its corporate structure and financial results.
‘When the court can actually consider the facts, we are confident the plaintiff’s claims will be dismissed’
The letter said Fleites expects she will need to take the deposition of a Grant Thornton Ireland corporate representative.
It added that Fleites expects areas of inquiry will include various different factors such as the services rendered by Grant Thornton for MindGeek’s entities, the use of any of Grant Thornton’s properties by MindGeek and any questions raised following the review of documents provided.
Grant Thornton was unable to comment because of the ongoing legal proceedings.
In previous coverage of the Fleites case taken from the BBC in August, MindGeek said the court had yet to rule on the truth of the allegations made against it and other defendants.
“When the court can actually consider the facts, we are confident the plaintiff’s claims will be dismissed for lack of merit,” the company said.
MindGeek also told the BBC that it has zero tolerance for the posting of illegal content on its platforms.
The company added that any insinuation that it does not take the elimination of illegal material seriously is “categorically false”.
