A founder of the lucrative classified site Backpage.com will face his second trial on charges of facilitating prostitution and laundering money in what authorities say was a scheme to knowingly sell ads for sex on the site.
Jury selection for Michael Lacey and four former Backpage employees is scheduled to begin Tuesday in federal court. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in September 2021 when a judge concluded prosecutors had too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge.
