December 15, 2021

USA: Sony Vice President Of Engineering, Who Worked On The PlayStation Store, Fired After Sting by Online Vigilante Pedophile Hunters Caught Him Soliciting 15 Year Old Boy For Sex

Newsweek
written by Ewan Palmer
Monday December 6, 2021

A senior Sony vice president has been fired from the company after he was allegedly caught by an online vigilante group arranging to meet up with a 15-year-old boy for sex

George Cacioppo, a senior vice president at Sony Interactive Entertainment who had been at the company since September 2013, was featured in a video by the People v. Preds group which was posted online on December 3.

The footage, which has been viewed more than 86,000 times on YouTube, shows a member of the vigilante group confronting Cacioppo outside his home in the early hours of the morning.

The member of People v. Preds refers to Cacioppo as "Jeff" before asking him who he was planning on meeting. The man then tells Cacioppo that they can have a conversation or he can call the police.

Cacioppo, who is seen wearing a PS5 T-shirt, closes the door on the person filming him. The cameraman then yells loudly in the street: "Excuse me everybody, this guy invited a 15-year-old boy to have sex with him tonight."

According to a Google Drive link posted by People v. Preds, a person alleged to be Cacioppo using the alias Jeff began speaking with what they thought was a 15-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr.

The conversations show that Jeff was aware that the boy he thought he was talking to had "just turned 15 2 weeks ago" before asking a series of sexually explicit questions and sending pornographic photos of himself.

The user then shares their location with the vigilante group, who arrange to meet outside the user's home at around 4:30 a.m.

In a statement to Cnet, Sony said: "We are aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment."

San Diego Police confirmed to Newsweek that there is an active investigation being led by the department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Speaking to Kotaku, a spokesperson for People v. Preds said: "The police department doesn't work with 'Cyber groups' like us. That's when the internet takes over."

According to his LinkedIn profile, before working at Sony Cacioppo was the vice president of software engineering at Intuit in San Diego, California.

He began his career as a software engineer for Hazeltine Industrial products in New York state in 1978 before moving to work at Digital Equipment Corporation in 1982.

Since then, he was also worked as a vice president of software development for Adobe and as vice president of PalmSource Holding.

Cacioppo and Sony have been contacted for comment.
CNET
written by Oscar Gonzalez
Thursday December 9, 2021

A Sony senior vice president who worked on the PlayStation Network was fired from his position after being caught in an amateur pedophilia sting video. San Diego police confirmed Thursday he is now under investigation.

George Cacioppo was allegedly trying to arrange a meeting with a person claiming to be a 15-year-old boy, according to a video posted Dec. 3 by the YouTube channel People v. Preds. Cacioppo had been a senior vice president of engineering at Sony for the past eight years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has been fired after allegedly appearing in the video.

"We are aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment," Sony said in an emailed statement Sunday.

Cacioppo didn't respond to requests for comment submitted through his LinkedIn account.

A spokesperson for the San Diego Police said Thursday its Internet Crimes Against Children task force is investigating the incident. People v. Preds confirmed that the information was sent to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office. The DA's office says it has yet to receive the case from law enforcement.

This isn't the first tech company employee that People v. Preds claims to have caught trying to meet a minor. In October, a man identified as Todd Wiseman allegedly set up a meeting with a 15-year-old on Grindr.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Wiseman was a senior account manager at Nvidia. A spokesman for the company said Wiseman doesn't work for the company but confirmed he used to be an employee. Nvidia declined to comment on whether the video contributed to the end of his employment.

Wiseman didn't respond to a request for comment submitted through his LinkedIn account.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 9:29 PM

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