Sony has “terminated” the employment of a PlayStation executive after he allegedly appeared as part of a paedophile sting operation this weekend. George Cacioppo, a senior vice president working on services like PSN and the PS Store, was reportedly caught on camera by a vigilante group aiming to expose adults who try to engage in sexual activities with children.
The taskforce, named People v. Preds, impersonated a 15-year-old and apparently made contact with Cacioppo online. Arrangements were made to meet for sex, at which point the alleged PlayStation employee was caught on camera coming out of his house to meet the teenager. Throughout the video, Cacioppo is referred to as “Jeff”, and is spotted wearing a PlayStation 5 shirt.
It’s worth stressing that no crimes are committed in the video, as the individual said to be Cacioppo immediately goes inside and closes the door when being filmed. However, chat logs allegedly depict the entire encounter, as Cacioppo apparently shares explicit pictures of himself after learning that the person he’s in contact with is a minor. Arrangements to meet are then supposedly made.
Prior to the meet, Cacioppo apparently sent a photograph of himself wearing the same PS5 shirt as the one he’s caught wearing in the video. Since the clip emerged, Sony released a statement to CNET, stating that it’s “aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment”.
Meanwhile, People v. Preds has said that it’s shared all evidence with the authorities.
[source youtube.com, via cnet.com, kotaku.com]
Comments 78
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Well bloody hell that’s horrific. Absolutely the lowest of the low.
That was so disturbing and horrifying. Glad they fired this scum at the speed of light. Looking at you Activision and Ubisoft, y'all should take notes.
I wonder how the board of inverstors will react, since this will count as one more blunder that damaged the brand in Ryan's tenure.
I went here right after seeing Halo reviews are great on Pure Xbox. Talk about a whiplash of emotion.😅
Sad to see this though. Hope the next person in charge is better.
Yikes! Here’s a Push Square libel case waiting to happen.
@CielloArc This is the actions of an individual outside of work, it really has nothing to do with Jim Ryan.
Welp, at least they reacted immediately.
Yeah, welcome to "How to Handle These Kinds of Things 101".
Ubisoft and Activision should take notes.
@Orochilocka Really? You’re really going there? Really?
That's awful but glad to hear that Sony took action against this individual as soon as they found out.
@get2sammyb I know it is not his fault, but the board might not think so.
Boy…this industry has a lot of skeletons coming out of their closets. At least Sony was swift about it unlike a certain other company with a certain CEO.
Good on Sony, and PushSquare. This kind of thing cannot be brushed under the rug.
Why don't you have a seat? Right over there. Take a seat.
Damn. Dark news. Always a reminder of people's unimaginable dark sides. I bet his family knew nothing. I always feel for them the most in these situations...
Gotta say I'm not a fan of the "To Catch a Predator" style confrontation. While it's entertaining, surely it just throws a spanner in the works for police and prosecutors.
@nessisonett yep. As a publisher, we used to have libel budget set for these exact topics. Doubt Push Square has and if they haven’t, they’re going to need to. Used to see things like this all the time.
Ah *****, here we go again
That's vile. Hopefully he's brought to trial and punished accordingly.
Thats good.glad they caught him. PlayStation did it quick also.respect.word up son
Yet Prince Andrew still reuses to admit his part in the maxwell epstein saga. About par for that family, I mean, you can't event shake the queen's hand without them knowing the far end of a fart about you, yet they were best pals with Jimmy and Rolf. This will be removed despite being true.
Disgusting.
@lolwhatno its everywhere
Technically ephebophilia, but most don’t bother with the difference. Either way, good he’s been fired immediately (presuming these third party people were careful and truthful of course).
Sony dealt with that swiftly. The evidence was damning. Video, texts, pics.
The most insane thing is that the guy sent a selfie of himself wearing a PS5 shirt, then goes out to ‘greet’ him in the same shirt.
Did he think he would seam more cool/approachable to the supposed kid? Absolutely disgusting. Should spend his remaining life in prison- he’s probably gotten away with it the majority of his life.
Unfortunately he probably won’t get a sentence, as entrapment almost always doesn’t lead to a criminal conviction.
Hopefully Sony check all his past activities, with PSN he’s got an unlimited & ever growing list of potential victims.
Good for sony for quickly firing him.
@Korgon What's one thing got to do with the other?
Also, Halo reviews were bound to be good. The critics lap up anything MS nowadays and sneer on all things Sony, even some on this site.
Anyways, despicable behaviour. Let's hope he receives the justice that he deserves.
Main thing - Hopefully they can figure out if this guy has done this in the past with anyone else.
Also, glad to see him kicked so quickly in light of so many facts.
Scum. Nothing else to be said about the guy.
@CielloArc I know people don't like Ryan, but the brand has never been stronger.
Glad they fired him. Disgusting.
I’d be curious to know how this went down. For context (which Push Square did not provide for whatever reason), this took place on the app Grindr.
To hear it from reddit, it is huge a problem on Grindr that there is no enforcement of age restrictions to use the app, and there are minors on it sharing explicit images. It sounds like it’s something of a minefield to navigate.
@Sakisa ehhhh. No industry doesnt have "skeletons" in their closet. The cereal and jewelry industry constantly use child slavery and send them to some horrifying death inducing conditions on a daily basis.
@thefourfoldroot Technically, he like adults who pose as children on Grindr! But let’s not get technical haha.
Imagine having a cushy life as a Playstation exec and then going out and doing something like this, lol. He absolutely wore that shirt to take advantage of the brand's popularity, since he was messing with children. What a creep.
The worst part is how good these people often are at disguising these activities. My pedophile elementary school teacher had worked there for twenty-plus years before he was discovered and arrested. This guy sounds... less cunning.
Admittedly, it's probably a lot easier catching them now given all the technology we have access to.
@Spiders As somebody who has actually used Grindr in the past, I can absolutely confirm that there’s a problem with minors on the service. At the end of the day though, it’s not all that difficult to just not go for anybody who looks underage if you’re a middle aged man.
@Consolefanboyspotr True... it’s almost as if industry is made of people!
The problem is that people in industries have an incentive to run cover for criminals that profit them, see: Activision Blizzard.
Now, we have made a currency out of outing these people, there is a new cost/benefit calculus to do. Sony has no problem doing this to whoever this guy is, but imagine it was Jim Ryan. I bet they’d be in the trenches with all the receipts trying to discredit the work this group does.
Meanwhile Activision and Ubi protects its predators,
@get2sammyb "PlayStation Executive Fired After Unsavoury Allegations Emerge"
Unsavoury? Sounds like they fired him b/c he broke his mayonnaise emulsion. 😝
How about - "PlayStation Executive Fired After Vigilante Sting Operation"?
Everybody loves vigilantes and sting operations, and it's accurate. 🤷♂️
@nessisonett True. But I have to wonder then what this “minor” looked like, and at what point the supposed reveal happened.
As someone who’s used it, how do you imagine it all going down? Do you think this guy had to be a predator for it get that far? Or do you think it’s possible to trick somebody that otherwise had no interest in minors?
@Spiders I mean, the article says that after learning the ‘bait’ was a minor, the guy showed them his todger and arranged a meeting. When told that somebody’s a minor, generally you just say that you aren’t interested in kids. Personally, if there’s the slightest bit of doubt that somebody’s under 18, you just ask them for a social media and that 99% of the time confirms those suspicions. But if there’s doubt then you probably shouldn’t be going there anyway. I just don’t see why old dudes can’t go for people that at the bare minimum look like an adult.
Given how readily this person has been identified I hope the allegations are true.
Good riddance to this guy, anyone who targets children should be locked up.
@Col_McCafferty
I wasn't saying they have anything to do with each other. I was just saying it was a weird switch from "Great Halo is looking good!" to "Oh man hate to see news like that."
It was just an observation is all.
@lolwhatno thats ok ,I read it on psu this morning which stated he'd been fired but whatever ,the filthy scumbag has gone so alls good,I would've thought Sony would've had to have waited for the fill facts before taking action anyway ,one got caught near me and he only got fired a week later after the police had completed there investigation and he was arrested ,I dont know the police actual involvement in this particular case.
There isn't a hole deep enough to throw the scumbags that these type of ppl are as far as I'm concerned
@nessisonett Thanks for the perspective. I guess it really comes down to how true and how clear that "age reveal" was, but like you said there is some level of diligence that can be done if you're not sure.
What do you think about Grindr in all this? How much responsibility should be on the platform to prevent minors (thus pedos) from using it? I imagine you'd want a hookup app to be more 'myspace' than 'facebook', but they are in the best position to do something about it.
@vapidwolf That's my biggest reservation here. We have very few facts and their all coming from the "sting" group.
I think it's partly a reaction to the Activision debacle, and also the particular heinousness of the accusation. If this was adult sexual harassment, they might be more keen to wait for more facts, and from a police source.
If it's true, like @Martsmall said, there's no hole deep enough to throw this guy in. However, I'm always a bit worried about how much damage just an accusation can do without due process, especially when it's coming from a group who is purposefully engineering the circumstances.
The bad thing is that I think this guy can't be arrested because of the way this group did this.
Sony did the right thing but it revolts me the fact that is dude is going to get away with whatever the hell perverted stuff he's doing.
Omg this is so messed up! WTH?
@KidBoruto not locked up but killed, be gone at the face of the universe, with that recent kid who is killed by his own parents and then you get this, I don't have any faith society like this smdh!
@Uncharted2007 my words exactly! I hope this is not the tip of the iceberg!
@Fight_Teza_Fight.....
Not meaning to soind insensitive to those affected......
I think Sony fired him more for the PS5 t-shirt than what he may have actually did.
I mean having you biggest product and brand directly associated with a person linked to what the guy is accused of is totally BAD publicity particularly in the festive season right close to Christmas...............
Why is it that when these people are successful and have a ***** ton of money, they like to partake in these sorts of messed up activities.
Those at the top are the sickest and most deranged people on the planet.
@Spiders The problem is that it really wasn’t that long ago when the age of consent was higher for gay men than heterosexual couples and police were arresting people left right and centre for breaking that law. So any sort of crackdown on a platform like Grindr might be seen as disproportionate when the same sorta stuff happens with underage girls as well. I do think there should be some sort of age verification though, everybody knows what Grindr is about and it’s more about the minor’s safety than the potential predator getting caught. This guy has 100% proven that he’s done this before by being so brazen after being told that the albeit fake minor was 15 years old. I don’t agree with the way they went about it but the blame in these situations absolutely lies with the adult as it’s their responsibility to make sure the other person isn’t a minor. And I can’t stress this enough, if you’re middle aged and you’re annoyed at being ‘fooled’ by a minor then you clearly need to take a step back and look at the sort of people you’re messaging online.
@Pat_trick I mean, people literally get away with murder. And I can't think of anything worse.
@vapidwolf..... Sony waiting a week for concrete investigation while a pic of a guy accused of pedophilia wearing a PS5 t-shirt seculates online while their trying to sell PS5 is almost suicide
@Fenbops..... Cause as Eminem says "WITH POWER COME NO RESPONSIBILITY" so theres that....
@Pat_trick hmm I have reservations about the way these groups work,the things are great that they do but I really wish they would hand all evidence over to the police instead of making videos to promote there own channel and then once the filth have been charged and found guilty then release the video and all the evidence ,too many of them escape justice because their lawyers find a loophole in the way the evidence was presented and they end up getting off.
I believe there’s a special place in Hell for people like him. What an idiot to jeopardise his job. Hope he hasn’t got a wife or any kids who would be affected by his horrendous actions.
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How shocking! A rich man in power involved in a sex abuse scandal? I've never heard of such a thing before! Honestly, it's the rich people in power that are ruining our world in every selfish, self-serving way possible.
@Pat_trick People like this almost always make a habit of this kind of behavior. He may not be arrested this time, but he is being watched. When they do get him, they will throw the book at him. It just sucks that he's still out there as a threat to society.
@vapidwolf That's the thing. In the end I don't know if what they're doing is right or not. On one hand they exposed a horrible human being, on the other, because of the way they did it there aren't going to be any legal consequences for his actions.
@Constable_What I really hope you're right. And hopefully before he does anything too drastic.
I'm glad they finally caught this scumbag.
The whole thing is on youtube lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14INdlFIe-k
Skip to midway of the video
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Oh, not again... At least this stuff is being exposed. I think the worst are the ones that are smart/rich enough to buy trafficked children to their holiday lets or some such. The franklin cover up is one of the worst, but, hey, they covered that well and you didn't read this from me.
@Gelloh You know, when discussing these cases with my friends a whole back I actually theorized that it is the power that influences these kinds of clearly illegal decisions. Some sort of further power trip of breaking the law and getting away with it along with being able to completely dominate the minor, which would be less able to defend themselves against adults or make informed decisions.
Kiddy fiddlers..they should be strung up by their dangly bits and left to twist in the breeze..disgusting creatures..
@Jayofmaya you nailed it! We have a problem with the rich, powerful and influential experimenting with how much they can get away wit. The working class are their lab rats.
Seriously, good on Sony for terminating this guy immediately instead of making excuses for him. If he’s a VP, then I’m sure it means he’s been with the company for quite some time, and had quite a few friends among top PS executives. Letting him go was the right thing to do, even if it wasn’t the easiest for them.
Here is the full video of the bust in case anyone is interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14INdlFIe-k&t=73s
@Gelloh Well, I believe that whilst people like this continue living an empty, hollow life with impulses and possessions to fill the void, we got to hold up our light. I think these dark cases we keep hearing, they will come to light and they will pass for a better future and in the mean time be happy in your life and do what you can around you, for yourself and those you love. So, whatever broken mind state these people are in, we can't add to their hate, even though they do need to be humbled and stripped of the power they hold. Anyway, much love to you and keep living
@Fight_Teza_Fight
Entrapment is when law enforcement tries to make someone commit a crime. Despite the name, it doesn't have anything to do with law enforcement or other agencies setting up bait to catch opportunistic crimes. Those do actually hold up.
Not a big fan of naming and shaming online, tbh.
Not for his sake, he should face the consequences, but for the sake of his family, coworkers, friends etc who are innocent and probably also affected by this.
No surprise there. It seems there are paedophiles in every sector of our society, whether that is in politics, sports, social services, entertainment, hollywood etc. Even worst is that they'll be the ones making the most important decisions. VILE
Let's keep the creeps behind bars. Reveal them all.
Epstein didn't kill himself
This story should be the top headline of every news outlet. But we all know why it won't be. Thank you, push square.
@CielloArc
Dude are you serious? Jim Ryan really can't do anything about this. This happens at many large companies. It is good that Sony is taking action quickly. Sickening such guests. And it proves once again that this occurs in all walks of life. Lock up and never have road plates again!!
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