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Sony confirmed with the CNET website on Sunday that it has fired PlayStation executive George Cacioppo. The firing comes after the “People v. Preds” YouTube channel posted a video on Saturday alleging that the people behind the YouTube channel “caught” Cacioppo in an amateur sting operation, accusing him of pedophilic activity.
The video features someone approaching a man standing in front of his house wearing a shirt with the PlayStation 5 logo and asking him if his name is “Jeff,” and then threatening to call the police on the man. The man goes into his house and shuts the door. It is not clear if the video does feature Cacioppo.
The YouTube video alleges that Cacioppo invited a 15-year-old boy to his house for the purpose of sexual activity. The video’s description links to a set of documents on Google Drive that allegedly feature a conversation between Cacioppo and someone claiming to be a 14-year-old boy (who later claimed to be 15 in the conversation) on the social media platform Grindr. The man in the conversation said his name was Jeff.
Sony‘s statement to CNET reads, “We are aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment.”
CNET reported that Cacioppo’s LinkedIn profile stated he was a senior vice president of engineering for the PlayStation Network at Sony Interactive Entertainment for the last eight years, but ANN could not confirm that information as the LinkedIn profile has been deleted since CNET’s article was published. A Google search for the page does however preview the now-deleted profile, stating Cacioppo was the Senior Vice President of Engineering, PlayStation Network at Sony Interactive Entertainment from September 2013 to the present.
The people behind the “People v. Preds” YouTube channel stated they gave the information they had to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, but the office did not reply to CNET’s request for comment. According to reporting from news website Kotaku, the YouTube channel’s staff released all its information publicly because, “The police department doesn’t work with ‘Cyber groups’ like us. That’s when the internet takes over.” The YouTube channel states that they are a group who “catch online preds [sic] that prey on children for sexual activities.”
Sources: CNET (Oscar Gonzalez), Kotaku (Luke Plunkett), Polygon (Nicole Carpenter)
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