LAS VEGAS — Founders of the now-defunct “revenge porn” site UGotPosted.com — Eric Chanson and Kevin Bollaert — have been ordered to pay an Ohio woman $385,000, including $75,000 in punitive damages.
The Jane Doe plaintiff sued UGotPosted.com’s operators after finding several sexually explicit images of herself as a minor on the site.
An Ohio federal court awarded Doe a judgment of $385,000 against Bollaert and Chanson today.
The court awarded the plaintiff $150,000 each on two child pornography claims, and $10,000 on her right-of-publicity claim. Additionally, the court awarded her $75,000 inpunitive damages based on Bollaert and Chanson’s conduct.
The court also prohibited Bollaert and Chanson from ever again publishing her images.
“The message this $385,000 judgment sends to people who run revenge porn sites is unambiguous,” said Marc Randazza of Las Vegas-based Randazza Law Group, Doe’s attorney.
Randazza handled the case with Louis Sirkin, who also takes on First Amendment and adult entertainment industry cases.
“These sites irreparably harm their victims, and often without any criminal action against them,” Randazza said. “In this case, a civil suit allowed our client to obtain justice against the people who exploited her.”
Bollaert also faces criminal chages in California.
UGotPosted.com facilitated the posting of more than 10,000 sexually explicit photos and extorted victims for as much as $350 each to remove the illicit content, according to California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris.
Bollaert has been charged with 31 felony counts of conspiracy, identity theft and extortion and is facing possible jail time and fines in the California case.
Unlike many other revenge porn websites where the subject of the photos is anonymous, UGotPosted.com required that the poster include the subject’s full name, location, age and facebook profile link.
Court documents allege that Bollaert created a second website, ChangeMyReputation.com, in October 2012, which he used when individuals contacted UGotPosted.com requesting that content be removed from the site.
According to the California complaint, Bollaert would allegedly extort victims by replying with a ChangeMyReputation.com email address and offering to remove the content for a fee ranging from $300 to $350, which could be paid using a PayPal account referenced in the emails.
Bollaert allegedly told California investigators that he made around $900 per month from advertising on the site and records obtained from his ChangeMyReputation.com PayPal account indicate that he received payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars.
