‘King of revenge porn’ to plead guilty; prison time expected

A man dubbed the “king of revenge porn” will plead guilty to federal computer hacking and identity theft charges for stealing nude photos from email accounts and posting them online, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Hunter Moore, 28, operated the website Is Anyone Up? where he hacked into women’s email accounts, stole nude photos and put them online, according to court documents. In other instances, he paid others to steal the photos for him, authorities said.

Moore was charged with seven federal crimes but will plead guilty to only a handful of them, according to the plea agreement. He faces up to seven years in prison and three years of probation. He is due back in court Feb. 25 but officials said his plea probably will be pushed to March.

“I’m pleased he’s going to prison,” said Charlotte Laws, the mother of one of Moore’s alleged victims who helped prompt the FBI to examine his website. “I think it gives him and his followers time to grow up and get out of their mysogynistic, childish hating of women and trying to ruin their lives.”

In 2011, Laws sought the help of the FBI after she learned her daughter’s photos were on his site. Authorities later arrested Moore of Woodland and Charles Evens of Studio City in January 2014 on suspicion of hacking into emails accounts and stealing sexually explicit photos that later showed up on his website.

Moore, who was dubbed the “king of revenge porn” by many, later told a Times reporter who asked about those who wanted their photos removed, “I understand it can hurt your reputation and your job and yadda yadda yadda.”

Moore’s conviction would be the second in recent months in California. Evens is scheduled to go on trial March 17.

In December, Noe Iniguez was convicted of a misdemeanor for posting his ex-girlfriend’s photos on her employer’s Facebook page without her consent. He was sentenced to a year in jail and became the first conviction in California under the state’s new revenge porn law.

Laws told The Times after Iniguez’s conviction that she was encouraged in her daughter’s case.

“I am very pleased now that’s its put into action,” Laws said. “It sends a message to any individual who attacks and harms women with nude pictures.”

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