A senior executive at Sony Interactive Entertainment was fired from the company after he allegedly appeared in a pedophile sting operation video made by an online vigilante group called People v. Preds. A spokesperson for the electronics and entertainment company confirmed that Senior Vice President George Cacioppo had been “terminated from employment” following the Dec. 3 release of the video, which appears to show him as he plans to meet a 15-year-old boy for a proposed sexual encounter, CNET reported.
In the video, a member of the vigilante group can be heard approaching what appears to be Cacioppo’s house, referring to him as “Jeff.” A man who appears to be Cacioppo is waiting outside barefoot in black shorts and a black Sony PlayStation 5 t-shirt.
The person pretending to be the 15-year-old boy then turns camera light on and asks, “Who are you out here to meet, Jeff?”
The man believed to be Cacioppo then retreats into his house and says “no” before closing the front door.
The man filming then shouts, “Excuse me everybody, this guy invited a 15-year-old boy to have sex with him tonight.”
The group also posted online chat logs allegedly from the Grindr dating app purporting to show Cacioppo exchanging messages with a person posing as the minor.
“Got cock photos?” the person believed to be Cacioppo asks.
“I think we talked before im only 15,” the person responds. “Plz don’t be mad. I can keep a secret.”
“Photos?” the older man replies.
A photo file was then sent but is not included in the posted chat logs.
“Mmmm very nice,” the older man says in response to the photo.
The person posing as the child later clarifies that he “just turned 15 2 weeks ago.”
After an explicit discussion about oral sex, the man believed to be Cacioppo writes, “Love to unzip your pants.”
The discussion then moves to a different social media app and the two appear to agree to meet up later that night at approximately 4:30 a.m., with the man believed to be Cacioppo sending the other person his GPS location, address, and what appears to be a photo taken in real time.
“What are we gonna do lol?” the person posing as the boy asks.
“Cuddling, kissing, mutual oral,” the man replies.
The person posing as the boy says he will take an Uber to the older man’s house and asks if the man will meet him outside, to which the man replies, “Yes.”
In a statement to CNET, a spokesperson for Sony Interactive Media said Cacioppo, who worked with the company for eight years, had been fired.
“We are aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment,” the company reportedly said.
A representative for People v. Preds reportedly told gaming news website Kotaku that the video was released publicly to put pressure on law enforcement to take action.
“The police department doesn’t work with ‘Cyber groups’ like us. That’s when the internet takes over,” the group said, adding that “evidence has been turned into the authorities.”
