{"id":2353,"date":"2012-04-02T11:00:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/?p=2353"},"modified":"2012-04-02T11:19:59","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T15:19:59","slug":"goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html","title":{"rendered":"Goldman Sachs dumps investment linked to sex trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/04\/bp.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-2355\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/104\/2012\/04\/bp-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/em><em>&#8220;A private equity fund run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/finance\/stocks\/overview?symbol=GS.N\">GS.N<\/a>) has agreed to sell its stake in the media company that runs a sex trafficking forum back to company&#8217;s management, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.&#8221; (from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/04\/01\/us-goldmansachs-backpage-idUSBRE8300FH20120401\">Reuters <\/a>report).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since craigslist shut down their online personal ads, there&#8217;s one big player left in the online &#8220;personal ads&#8221; space: Backpage.com.<\/p>\n<p>Backpage.com, owned by Village Voice Media, is estimated to run close to <a href=\"http:\/\/aimgroup.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/24\/sites-set-combined-record-for-online-prostitution-ad-revenue\/\">70% of all online prostitution ads.\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to the AIM Group, Backpage.com <em>&#8220;generated at least $2.6 million from the sale of online ads for prostitution and body rubs in 23 U.S. cities.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/aimgroup.com\/sites\/104\/2012\/02\/BPMonthly0112.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><em><\/em><em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Despite the craigslist to decision to stop ads tied to trafficking, Backpage has consistently refused to shut down their online personal ads and escort placements. This is in the face of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/86506740\/Nineteen-U-S-Senators-Sign-Letter-to-Village-Voice-Against-Backpage\">19 U.S. Senators<\/a> asking the company to remove the adult services section from Backpage.com<\/li>\n<li>Over 222,000 signatures on a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.change.org\/petitions\/tell-village-voice-media-to-stop-child-sex-trafficking-on-backpage-com\">Change.org<\/a> petition. (Sign the petition <a href=\"http:\/\/www.change.org\/petitions\/tell-village-voice-media-to-stop-child-sex-trafficking-on-backpage-com\">here<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>Pressure from<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kirk.senate.gov\/?p=blog&amp;id=434\"> 51 Attorneys General<\/a>, dozens of anti-trafficking organizations, hundreds of clergy from acros<em><\/em>s the religious spectrum.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But what if you found out that your IRA or 401(k) had actually invested in Village Voice Media? Thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/04\/01\/opinion\/sunday\/kristof-financers-and-sex-trafficking.html?_r=1\">Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times<\/a>, it came to light that a private fund of Goldman Sachs had done just that.<\/p>\n<p>After this came to light, Goldman moved quickly to dump the investment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>However, they held a 16-percent minority stake in Backpage for several years&#8211;and through the entire controversy and firestorm about ads being linked to trafficking. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Although they claim they are selling the investment at a loss, it sure does have the appearance that they are doing the right thing only after being caught. Kristof is fair to Goldman. <strong>But the point still stands that many times we don&#8217;t have the transparency or knowledge to know if our investment in a company like Goldman Sachs is trickling down to funding a company connected to the trafficking of minors.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kristof&#8217;s column is a worthy read, and ends by saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>There are no easy solutions to sex trafficking. I think the most important single step is for prosecutors to focus more on pimps and johns. Closing down the leading Web site used by traffickers would complicate their lives, and after so many years of girls being trafficked on this site, it\u2019s time to hold owners accountable.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong> What can you do right now on this issue?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00bb <a href=\"http:\/\/www.change.org\/petitions\/tell-village-voice-media-to-stop-child-sex-trafficking-on-backpage-com\">Sign the Change.org Petition.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00bb Check out the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.groundswell-movement.org\/join-the-groundswell\/take-action-to-protect-our-children\/\">Groundswell <\/a>campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sharedhope.org\/GetInvolved\/JoinTheCampaign\/Backpagecom.aspx\">Shared Hope International<\/a> is calling on mayors to stand against child sex trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb Write or call the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/contact\/write-or-call#write\">President<\/a>, your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/general\/contact_information\/senators_cfm.cfm\">Senators<\/a>, and your <a href=\"https:\/\/writerep.house.gov\/writerep\/welcome.shtml\">Representatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bb Write your <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usa.gov\/Contact\/Governors.shtml\">governor<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/thomas.loc.gov\/home\/state-legislatures.html\">state representatives<\/a>.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;A private equity fund run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) has agreed to sell its stake in the media company that runs a sex trafficking forum back to company&#8217;s management, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.&#8221; (from the Reuters report). Since craigslist shut down their online personal ads, there&#8217;s one big player left in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-trafficking"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Goldman Sachs dumps investment linked to sex trafficking - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Goldman Sachs dumps investment linked to sex trafficking - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;A private equity fund run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) has agreed to sell its stake in the media company that runs a sex trafficking forum back to company&#8217;s management, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.&#8221; (from the Reuters report). Since craigslist shut down their online personal ads, there&#8217;s one big player left in the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-02T15:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-02T15:19:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/04\/bp-150x150.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Goldman Sachs dumps investment linked to sex trafficking - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Goldman Sachs dumps investment linked to sex trafficking - Red Letters","og_description":"&#8220;A private equity fund run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) has agreed to sell its stake in the media company that runs a sex trafficking forum back to company&#8217;s management, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.&#8221; (from the Reuters report). Since craigslist shut down their online personal ads, there&#8217;s one big player left in the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2012-04-02T15:00:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-04-02T15:19:59+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/04\/bp-150x150.png"}],"author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html","name":"Goldman Sachs dumps investment linked to sex trafficking - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/04\/bp-150x150.png","datePublished":"2012-04-02T15:00:50+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-02T15:19:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/04\/bp-150x150.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/04\/bp-150x150.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/04\/goldman-sachs-dumps-investment-linked-to-sex-trafficking.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Goldman Sachs dumps investment linked to sex trafficking"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2353"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2357,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions\/2357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}