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Operator Of 'Revenge Porn' Website Strikes Plea Deal With Federal Prosecutors

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The owner of a now-defunct website that trafficked in stolen nude photos of women, sometimes submitted by jilted boyfriends, agreed to plead guilty Wednesday in Los Angeles to federal charges.

Hunter Moore, 28, of Woodland, near Sacramento, will enter his plea to one count each of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information and aggravated identity theft at a date to be scheduled, according to the plea agreement. As part of the plea deal, Moore will be unable to access computers, accounts and Internet unless first disclosed to his probation officer.

Moore allegedly paid co-defendant Charles "Gary Jones" Evens more than of $200 a week to break into women's email accounts and steal nude photos of them, which were posted on his now-defunct site IsAnyoneUp.com?

Evens, 26, of Studio City is scheduled to go on trial in Los Angeles federal court on March 17.

Moore posted nude or sexually explicit photos of women that were submitted without the victims' permission for "revenge" purposes. The women's names, professions, social-media profiles and cities of residence were often included, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Moore paid Evens to hack into victims' email accounts to obtain additional photos for the site, which operated for about two years before shutting down in April 2012, according to prosecutors.

The website drew media attention and Moore was profiled in Rolling Stone, which dubbed him "the most hated man on the Internet," and he appeared on TV talk shows hosted by Anderson Cooper and Drew Pinsky of "Loveline" fame.

Brandi Passante, a star of the A&E reality show "Storage Wars," sued Moore for defamation in Santa Ana federal court in 2012.

Moore faces between two and seven years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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