State Attorney General Matt Denn has petitioned the Court of Chancery to shut down four Delaware limited liability companies linked to classified advertising website Backpage.com, saying the entities had been used to operate a sex trafficking conspiracy.

The complaint, filed Nov. 19, asked the court to cancel the companies' certificates of formation using a new provision of Delaware's Limited Liability Company Act, which allows the attorney general to seek the dissolution of LLCs that abuse their “powers, privileges or existence” under state law.

Backpage.com was seized by federal law enforcement in April, and the men who created it are currently under federal indictment, according to the complaint. The company's CEO, Carl Ferrer, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, prostitution and money laundering charges. Meanwhile, three other LLCs—Website Technologies, Posting Solutions and Amstel River Holdings—have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and forfeited all corporate assets related to the scheme.