Hunter Moore, the infamous creator of a website that published nude photos of people that had been pilfered from their email accounts, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two counts in federal court.
Moore, of Woodland, California, was accused of running “IsAnyoneUp.com,” which sparked immediate controversy by its posting of compromising photographs, a so-called “revenge porn” site.
He pleaded guilty to unauthorized access to a protected computer for private financial gain, aggravated identity theft and causing an illegal act to be done, according to his plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Moore will get at least a two-year prison sentence on one of the counts but no more than six months on the other, the plea agreement says.
The photos posted on IsAnyoneUp.com were submitted to the site and at other times taken from victim’s email accounts. Those people had been victims of social engineering, which allowed one of Moore’s accomplices to access their Yahoo and Gmail accounts, according to the indictment filed in December 2013.
Moore obtained the photos in part from Charles Evens, also known as Gary, who was paid by Moore through PayPal or through his bank account to hack the email accounts. At one point, Moore offered Evens a salary of $200 a week in exchange for supplying photos, the indictment said.
As part of the plea, Moore will forfeit any digital media that was seized by authorities. The government is also allowed to delete any data from devices that are eventually returned to him.