Major Corporate Executive Fired After Being Busted by Citizen Pedophile Sting
A top executive at Sony Corp. has been fired after he was featured in a video posted by a vigilante group, which claims to hunt sexual predators.
The group People v. Preds, which operates a YouTube channel and runs amateur sting operations on people it believes are pedophiles, recently featured a man identified as George Cacioppo, a senior vice president of engineering at Sony.
The group was investigating the activities of an online poster who was using the dating app Grindr to arrange for sex with online vigilantes posing as a 15-year-old boy, according to the Post Millennial.
Based on a Google Drive link posted by the group, the person targeted by the group asked who he thought was a 15-year-old multiple questions about sex and sent explicit photos of himself to the teen.
An arrangement was made to meet at 4:30 a.m., according to Newsweek.
In a YouTube video that shows what happened when the vigilantes went to the address, Cacioppo is shown standing outside of a home.
WARNING: The following video contains explicit images and language that some viewers may find disturbing.
He was asked multiple times if his name is Jeff, the name of the user soliciting sex from the teenage boy.
The person making the video says that Cacioppo can either talk to him or to police.
After multiple questions were yelled at him, Cacioppo, who was wearing a PS5 T-shirt, closed the door.
At that point, the person making the video can be heard yelling, “Excuse me, everybody, this guy invited a 15-year-old boy to have sex with him tonight.”
WARNING: The following video contains explicit images and language that some viewers may find disturbing.
Here is video of the bust that occurred during the evening of December 3rd, 2021. pic.twitter.com/61S8oud8zd
— Tipster (@BanishedJourno) December 4, 2021
Sony issued a statement in response to the video and the allegations about its employee.
“We are aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment,” the statement said, according to CNET.
People v. Preds said information about the case was sent to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.
San Diego police said its Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is investigating the incident.
Newsweek quoted a member of People v. Preds as saying, “The police department doesn’t work with ‘Cyber groups’ like us. That’s when the internet takes over.”
Cacioppo did not respond to various websites that sought comment from him about the incident.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
