PHOENIX (AP) - A July 29 sentencing date has been set for the sales and marketing director of Backpage.com for his earlier guilty plea to conspiring to facilitate prostitution in a scheme to give free ads to prostitutes to draw them away from competitors.
Dan Hyer was the second Backpage.com employee to plead guilty in Arizona cases accusing the site of ignoring warnings to stop running prostitution ads.
Some of the site's operators also are accused of laundering money earned from ad sales after banks raised concerns that they were being used for illegal purposes.
In all, six others affiliated with Backpage.com face charges in the case.
Authorities say the site has brought in $500 million in prostitution-related revenue since its inception in 2004.
