Police arrest a California man Tuesday accused of making thousands of dollars from running a revenge porn website and then charging women to take their pictures down.
Twenty seven-year-old Kevin Christopher Bollaert was arrested on 31 felony counts of conspiracy, identity theft and extortion. According to the California Department of Justice, Bollaert operated yougotposted.com, a revenge porn website. (Via HLN)
"The photos came from ex-boyfriends or were hacked, all of them included the women's full name, location, age and Facebook profile link. When women would complain, they would be sent to Bollaert's other site." (Via KABC)
That other site, ChangeMyReputation.com allowed women whose pictures were posted to take down the photos, but according to police they were charged upward of $300 to do so. Police say Bollaert had tens of thousands of dollars in a Paypal account from women paying to have pictures removed. (Via KGTV)
Police say the website featured more than 10,000 pictures of different women sent in by others. A San Diego TV station caught up with Bollaert who doesn't deny running the website, but says he believes he didn't break the law.
"I don't think I committed any crime ... I just don't wanna be involved with that kind of website any more. I wanna do good things with my life." (Via KFMB)
And while California has a new law that deals specifically with revenge porn, Time notes, "the law says nothing about website operators, who generally aren’t liable for content that other people put on their sites."
"Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill banning so-called revenge porn, nude or sexual images online posted by an angry ex ... for the law to apply, the person doing the posting must have the intent of causing emotional distress or humiliation."
The women say they were stalked and harassed because of the postings. An email sent to the website reads in part, "PLEASE HELP! I am scared for my life! People are calling my work place, and they obtained that information through this site!" (Via Superior Court of the State of California)
Bollaert was released late Tuesday on $50,000 bond. He's due in court Wednesday afternoon.
