Kevin Bollaert, the owner of the revenge porn site has been sentenced to 18 years of prison.
Kevin Christopher Bollaert of 27 years old, was sentenced to prison on the 21st of February, under the accusations extortion and identity theft, after he was arrested in December 2013.
Bollaert who is originally from San Diego is the creator of a site called ugotposted.com, which stands for a website that allows people to upload x rated pictures in order to take revenge on their ex boyfriends/ girlfriends.
The explicit photos from the site, were uploaded without the permission of the person appearing in the photos. If the victims wished for the pictures to be taken down, Bollaert would charge them amounts that reached $350.
The revenge site, hosted thousands of pictures that were available to the entire world, for the duration the site was up and functional,meaning almost an entire year, from December 2012 to September 2013.
At the trial which took place in San Diego, there were eight victims(women) of Bollaert who testified against him, telling about the devastating impact the entire event had on their lives and the harassment they were put up to, after the images were uploaded on Bollaert’s site by their ex lovers.
Apart from the pictures, the site demanded a full package of information starting from the full name of the victim, to their age, address and the link of their Facebook profile. All of this data lead to the victims being harassed on their social media profiles and at their work place.
One of the women declared that she went trough serious struggle to put her life back together after the pictures were made public on the revenge site. Others stated that they had a breakdown and needed psychological help to manage to get back to normal and others said that they had to quit work or school.
The 18 years Bollaert has to spend in prison hasn’t been the full punishment he has received as Kevin Bollaert has to pay each victim $15,000 and a fine of $10,000. The general attorney of California, Kamaka Harris stated that a cowardly criminal act as such cannot be forgiven by the law and people doing this have to pay.
Other people operating revenge sites similar to this one have been under investigation. 28 years old Casey E. Meyering from Oklahoma, was arrested in February, and is believed to be the owner of a different revenge porn site. He was accused of extortion and his trial will take place on the 8th of June.
Hunter Moore is awaiting for his sentence also, for owning a revenge porn site. He is the creator of the site anyone.com and in February he pleaded guilty for identity theft and hacking activity. His sentence is expected to be between two and seven years plus a high fine.
Image Source: Daily Mail,NapaValleyRegister
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.