Two California men – including the creator and operator of a so-called “revenge porn” website -- were charged Thursday with computer crimes and ID theft stemming from an alleged conspiracy to steal nude photos that were later posted on the Internet.
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Hunter Moore, 27, of Woodland, Calif., near Sacramento, and Charles Evens, 25, of Studio City, Calif., without incident at their respective homes. They were expected to make initial court appearances later Thursday in the districts in which they were arrested.
Both men are charged in the 15-count federal grand jury indictment with conspiracy, seven counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information and seven counts of aggravated identity theft.
Neither the defendants nor their attorneys could immediately be reached by NBC News for comment.
If convicted, Moore and Evens each face a maximum of up to five years in federal prison on the conspiracy and computer hacking counts, prosecutors said. Additionally, the aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence, which would be served consecutively to any other sentence.
According to the 13-page indictment, there were least eight primary victims of the conspiracy, described only by their initials. “Nude images of (the victims) … and others” were posted on Moore’s site, isanyoneup.com, it said.
The indictment alleges that Moore instructed Evens to gain unauthorized access to victims’ computers and email accounts and sent payments to Evens in exchange for nude photos he obtained. Moore then posted the photos on his website, without the victims’ consent, it said.
Prosecutors said Moore’s site featured “revenge porn,” where “nude or explicit photos of victims (were) submitted by other individuals without the victim’s permission for purposes of revenge.”
