FBI Raid House of Man Responsible For 'Fappening' Photo Leaks
Federal law enforcement officials may be close to tracking down the man responsible for the celebrity photo leaks that rocked the internet last summer.
Gawker is reporting that official FBI documents just released to the public say that they have narrowed the search down to a brick bungalow in the south side of Chicago belonging to a man named Emilio Herrera.
Special Agent Josh Sedowsky wrote: 'Based on victim account records obtained from Apple, one or more computers used at [Herrera's house] access or attempted to access without authorisation multiple celebrities' email and iCloud accounts over the course of several months.
"The IP address on Narragansett accessed 330 unique iCloud accounts between May and August 2014, according to the other. Of those, 291 allegedly belonged to people who registered their accounts outside Illinois. Those 291 accounts were accessed more than 600 times," the report says
The document doesn't mention any of the women by name, using only initials to indicate their identity. The Gawker analysis shows some the potential celebrities named in the affidavit:
The affidavit for the first time confirms the scope and authenticity of the picture leak-"female celebrities" are listed as victims, though by initials only: "A.S., C.H., H.S., J.M., O.W., A.K., E.B., and A.H." These initials presumably refer to Abigail Spencer, Christina Hendricks Hope Solo, Jennette McCurdy, Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Emily Browning, and Amber Heard (though we could be incorrect).
The Independent reports that feds raided the property on October 16, 2014 and came away with several cell phones, computers, floppy disks, hard drives, USB thumb drives, and a Kindle tablet.
In the summer of 2014, the internet erupted when personal photos of famous female celebrities found their way onto the web. The photos were said to have been obtained via vulnerabilities in the iCloud online storage accounts of the women in question. They include such names as Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence, Victoria's Secret model Erin Heatherton, Blurred Lines star Emily Ratajkowski, pop singer Rihanna, and swimsuit model Kate Upton.