‘Revenge porn’ indictment shows conspiracy to hack emails, feds say
The unsealed indictment of Hunter Moore, dubbed by many as the “king of revenge porn,” and his alleged associate Charles Evens cites emails from October, 2011 in which Evens and Moore discuss how to “hack e-mails” and carry out their alleged scheme.
Moore and Evens were arrested Thursday on suspicion of hacking into email accounts to steal sexually explicit photos, many of which would allegedly be posted to Moore’s Internet site.
The site quickly became an online gallery of nudity and one feared by many musicians. Hundreds of nude photos of rock band members were posted.
Moore, 27, of Woodland, and Evens, 25, of Studio City, were arrested by federal authorities without incident.
They have been charged with conspiracy, seven counts of aggravated identity theft and seven counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Evens pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday and was released on bond. According to a spokesman for the Department of Justice, federal officials are seeking Moore’s “detention” and he’s due back in court in Sacramento to determine if he’ll be released on bond or held.
Included in the indictment is that on Oct. 17, 2011, Moore “sent to defendant Evens an e-mail stating that he is employing defendant Evens and instructing defendant Evens to use an anonymous PayPal account to avoid detection of their scheme and connection to each other.”
Then, a day later, Moore sent an email to Evens asking him “to send him naked pictures and stating that he would send payments” back to Evens via PayPal, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege Moore operated the website and that the pictures were submitted without the victim’s permission “for purposes of revenge.”
In a previous interview with The Times, Moore said photos were submitted anonymously by users.
“I understand it can hurt your reputation and your job and yadda yadda yadda,” Moore said when a Times reporter asked about those who wanted their photos taken down.
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