SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Adult video-on-demand service provider SkweezMe.com, has announced that after weeks of sifting through tips, it has forwarded to the FBI a large number of leads identifying the possible hacker behind last month’s leaked nude celebrity photo scandal.
During the chaos that was dubbed “Celebgate” and the “Fappening” by mainstream media, SkweezMe.com co-founder Mike Kulich offered a cash reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible for hacking, and leaking, nude photos of a number of A-List celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Ariana Grande and others.
In an interview with Vice Magazine, Kulich described his motive for wanting to catch the hacker, explaining that consent is one of the keystones of the adult entertainment business.
“Regardless of what anti-porn organizations claim — for instance, that we are all human traffickers and pimps — every girl that appears on film for any production company is there of her own free will,” Kulich told Vice Magazine. “She is consenting to everything that happens on screen.”
“The adult industry feels very strongly about consent,” he adds. “Which is why it has been heavily involved in our support for legislation banning revenge porn, which has become illegal in a number of different states.”
As the offer started to spread through mainstream media, Kulich claims that SkweezMe.com received more than 800 emails from users associated with the 4Chan website, with screenshots, email threads and other evidence, mostly pointing to one suspect.
“Sifting through all of the tips was a time-consuming process but we felt the need to step in and try to help find this low life,” Kulich stated. “A lot of the tips we received were not useful, but a number of them pointed to one man and also painted a bigger picture of what was going on.”
“It turns out that there was actually a leaked photo ring made up of a number of different 4Chan users that had been going on for months, and these users were trading the photos back and forth with each other,” Kulich added. “That is why when the leak happened, it wasn’t just one celebrity, but a number of them. The evidence we received resembled a child porn ring where anonymous users trade and share photos and store the collections on their computers.”
At the time of the reward offer, Kulich also tweeted his harsh feelings regarding the leak, stating that anyone who was reposting or publishing these unauthorized photos are guilty of a sex crime.
“I standby what I said,” Kulich explains, noting that this kind of thing happens every day. “Revenge porn is a huge problem, and the adult industry has made [its] opinion very clear on how we feel about unauthorized pictures being distributed without the person’s consent.”
“Unfortunately,” he concludes, “most people turned a blind eye to this widening problem until it happened to someone like Jennifer Lawrence.”
Kulich said that once an arrest is made in the case, the reward will be paid out to the tipster who provided the most reliable information.
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