NEW YORK — The Village Voice reports that the FBI has been investigating Hunter Moore and the now-defunct IsAnyoneUp website for months.
The Village Voice cites four individuals who say they've been interviewed by the FBI's Los Angeles Internet Crime division about the site operated by Hunter, which for two years offered “revenge porn” fare until Moore took the site down and sold it to the operators of Cheaterville.
The federal investigation, the Village Voice says, was Moore's possible connection to a hacker who has "repeatedly broken into the inboxes of countless victims, rifled through their attachments and submitted the accompanying nudes to IsAnyoneUp."
News of the probe came about it in an article published online in Village Voice that asks whether one hacker was behind IsAnyoneUp.com.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller would not confirm nor deny to XBIZ that an investigation has been launched.
The Village Voice says that Moore acknowledging that he and his lawyer had been fielding requests from the FBI throughout the site's existence.
Moore is quoted as saying, "We're going to work with every agency that we have pending investigations with. Really, [shutting down the site] comes down to never having to deal with this question, or anything like it, ever fucking again."
Moore, who made about $13,000 a month from the site, reportedly told the author of the Village Voice story that the site never had hackers.
"No, I don't have hackers," he said. "I'm half-retarded. Where would I find hackers? It's not like I posted on a message board, 'Friendly hackers, hey, can you get me nude pictures?' It doesn't work like that."
Later, the author said, Moore recanted any FBI investigation and threatened that he would set fire to the Village Voice's office if an article was published.
"Honestly, I will be fucking furious, and I will burn down fucking The Village Voice headquarters if you fucking write anything saying I have an FBI investigation," Moore reportedly said.
