The Washington State Attorney General’s Office last week filed a most unusual consumer protection lawsuit — charging a Seattle man with running a scheme for nearly a decade where he set up a fake talent agency for adult entertainers in order to trick women into posing nude and having sex with him.
Michael-Jon Matthew Hickey is accused of creating a fictitious business and using deceptive ads with bogus employment offers to find his victims. The lawsuit alleges Hickey offered and advertised commercial services solely for his “own personal gain” and to “satisfy his sexual desires” with no intention of following through on the promised services to help these women find jobs.
Hickey, a 40-year old technology blogger and aspiring photographer, is charged with numerous violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act and the Commercial Electronic Mail Act.
“This is one of the most egregious scams I’ve seen as Attorney General,” said Washington AG Bob Ferguson in a statement. “Beyond the monetary damage his victims suffered pursuing the defendant’s fictional job opportunities, they endured emotional trauma and unconscionable loss of privacy through his deception.”
In October, Hickey was charged with three counts of rape. He’s currently behind bars in the King County Jail in Seattle. One of those cases involves a woman who said she had an audition and photo shoot with Hickey for a role in an adult movie.
NBC News left phone and email messages for Hickey’s lawyer, but did not hear back from him.
