EXHIBIT 4A

Case 2:18-cr-00422-DJH Document 498-12 Filed 03/12/19 Page 1 of 3
903 Calle Amanecer, Suite 350 • San Clemente, CA 92673  

Tel. (949) 369‐3700 • Fax (949) 369‐3701 

 February 26, 2019 

Via E-Mail

Reggie Jones 

Assistant U.S. Attorney 

E-Mail: reginald.jones4@usdoj.gov 

 Re: United States v. Lacey, et al., 18-CR-0422-PHX-SPL 

Backpage.com Server Discovery 

Mr. Jones: 

 Thank you, Matt Frost, SA Amy Fryberger, and SA Desirae Tolhurst again for speaking with 

us about the Backpage.com server discovery on February 20, 2019. This letter is a follow-up from 

that phone call. The following is a summary of the issues that we discussed and is our understanding 

of the server discovery. 

1. Approximately 500 terabytes (“TB”) of data of Backpage.com servers exist, consisting of 

approximately 80 servers from Tucson, Amsterdam, and Dallas. 

2. The government currently has twelve servers in its possession – nine from Amsterdam and 

three from Dallas. 

a. Of the nine servers from Amsterdam, two are “masters,” three are “slaves,” three are 

“images,” and the ninth is a backup server with 120 TB of data that has not been imaged. The 

government initiated the process of seizing these nine servers from Amsterdam in June 2018. 

b. The three Dallas servers include antivirus servers and front-end servers used to render 

what appeared on the website. The government had been told the Backpage.com payment processing 

servers were in Dallas, but upon reviewing the Dallas servers, no payment processing databases are in 

any of the three Dallas servers in the government’s possession. The government has not yet located 

the payment processing databases or servers. 

c. The government has imaged five of the twelve servers in its possession and will soon 

produce the raw data from these five servers in discovery. These five servers consist of over 50 hard 

drives and approximately 60 TB of data. This forthcoming production will include a marketplace 

database. This marketplace database does not contain images or payment information associated with 

an ad. The administrative data associated with an individual ad is scattered across various databases 

but can be pieced together by going through each database. However, the images are uploaded to a 

separate location. The data is in file formats that cannot be read by the standard PC. Discovery from 

these five servers will be shipped to the FBI Phoenix office and available for pick-up or delivery 

shortly. Mr. Jones will provide some possible dates for pick-up. 

3. There are approximately 31 servers that remain in Amsterdam and are hung up in the MLAT 

process. The government does not know what is contained in these servers. The government seized 

these servers in October 2018. The government has been told that it takes about 3-6 months to get 

before a Dutch judge as part of the MLAT process. After the evidence is released by a Dutch judge, 

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February 25, 2019 

U.S. v. Lacey, et al., 18-CR-0422-PHX-SPL 

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it can be shipped through diplomatic servers back to the United States. Once the servers are received, 

they can begin to be forensically imaged. 

a. Imaging of data is itself a laborious process. For example, one Backpage.com image 

server that was approximately 8 TB in size contained hundreds of millions of pictures, and it took five 

weeks for the government to review and copy this data. The length of time it takes to image a server 

owes, in part, to the complicated and layered structure of the servers and hard drives. Additionally, 

the government’s ability to copy the data is limited by time and resources. 

 

4. The government believes that the approximately 40 servers from Tucson contain the same 

data as the 40 servers from Amsterdam. The government intends to only image and produce discovery 

from one set of servers. 

5. The government offered to prioritize server discovery production as requested by defense 

counsel. To provide the government with prioritization requests, defense counsel asked for a list of 

all servers with information about where they are from and what they are expected to contain. The 

government cannot provide such a list because the government does not have this information. 

a. Defense counsel then asked for samples of 50-100 advertisements as such 

advertisement now appear in the data the government has imaged. Defense counsel also asked if the 

government would provide the discrete parts of all advertisements that are the subject of counts in 

the Superseding Indictment. You indicated that you would work with Mr. Frost to provide some 

samples of advertisements as they now appear in the data the government will produce; however, 

today, you advised that Mr. Frost has been out of the office so you will provide these samples by the 

end of this week or by early next week. 

6. Some additional questions remain: 

a. Does the government have an estimate for the date by which it expects to produce all 

of the outstanding ~500 TB of server discovery? 

b. Why did the government take the relational Backpage.com servers down? 

Thank you in advance for your timely attention to this matter. We look forward to the 

samples, picking up the first server discovery production (which you informed us is ready for pick-up 

as of today), and hearing back from you with answers to the questions in subpoint 6. Please also feel 

free to reach me at (949) 369-3700. 

Very truly yours, 

Whitney Z. Bernstein 

Bienert | Katzman PLC 

cc: Paul Cambria, Jr. 

 Thomas H. Bienert, Jr. 

 Bruce Feder 

 Gary Lincenberg 

 Michael Piccarreta 

Stephen M. Weiss 

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