SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Victims of a revenge porn-extortion scheme got some revenge of their own on Friday, when a California man who ran the operation was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 27, faced a maximum of 23 years in prison after his February conviction on six counts of extortion and 21 counts of identity theft. All charges stemmed from his operation of the now-defunct UGotPosted.com, which allowed jilted lovers and spouses to upload 10,170 nude or explicit images along with personal information including the subjects’ names, cities of residence and links to social media profiles.
Bollaert also operated a separate website through which victims of UGotPosted paid as much as $350 to have the images removed. Authorities said PayPal records indicated Bollaert received $30,000 in extortion payments during the six months immediately preceding his arrest. Twenty-one of Bollaert’s victims testified for the prosecution during his trial.
Under a California state law passed in October 2013, revenge porn is considered a misdemeanor. Prosecutors chose instead to focus on 31 felony allegations including conspiracy, identity theft and extortion.
According to CBS affiliate KFMB in San Diego, Bollaert’s father addressed his son’s victims in court, apologizing for Kevin Bollaert’s criminal behavior.
The senior Bollaert said he could not express “how sorry we are here today because of a shameful, stupid, inappropriate thing my son did,” he said. “My heart goes out to all of you.”
