US: Lawyer admits role in $3 million honeypot porn piracy scam

Minnesota lawyer Paul Hansmeier has pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering in exchange for a sentence of no more than 150 months.

Mr Hansmeier and colleague John Steele, who admitted his role in the scam over a year ago, set up Prenda Law in 2010.

Although it started off launching legitimate copyright claims on behalf of pornographic filmmakers, the firm was, by 2011, uploading pornographic films to file-sharing websites itself and threatening legal action against those who downloaded them.

By 2012, Mr Hansmeier and Mr Steele were producing their own pornographic films and doing the same with them.

Prenda set up shell companies to gather the settlements and hide the firm’s involvement.

Mr Hansmeier will be sentenced at a hearing on Wednesday 5 September.