In what is the toughest ruling of its kind to date, a San Diego man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in operating the website UGotPosted.
Kevin Bollaert, 28, was convicted of 21 counts of identity theft and six counts of extortion. Bollaert posted compromising photos of women submitted by angry ex-lovers and then charged hundreds of dollars to have the images removed.
In addition to his sentence, Bollaert must pay $10,000 in restitution.
From the L.A. Times:
Prosecutors said that Bollaert created a website that allowed the anonymous posting of [explicit] photos. The website required that a person posting a picture to include the subject’s name, location, age and Facebook profile.
Prosecutors said more than 10,000 images from California and other states were posted between Dec. 2, 2012, and Sept. 17, 2013.
Court documents include emails to Bollaert’s website from women demanding that pictures of them be removed. In the emails, the women say that posting of the pictures left them angry, scared and feeling violated.
One woman emailed that after the pictures were posted along with her name and other personal information, she received phone calls, lewd photos and numerous emails from people “asking to ‘hook up.'”
“Sitting behind a computer, committing what is essentially a cowardly and criminal act, will not shield predators from the law or jail,” state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said.
Watch a report from NBC San Diego in the video below:
Featured image courtesy of Gawker
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