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The Fappening: Feds raid Chicago man’s house for allegedly leaking massive celebrity photo archive

FBI agents left with a Kindle, several cellphones, computers, floppy disks, hard drives and thumb drives, the document revealed

Justin Carissimo
Wednesday 10 June 2015 09:21 BST
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(Getty Images)

Recently unsealed documents reveal that FBI agents have raided a Chicago man’s apartment in conjunction with last summer’s “The Fappening” mass leak of nude celebrity photos, Gawker reported.

Emilio Herrera’s IP address was allegedly used to hack into more than 500 iCloud accounts to leak the trove of private celebrity photos online. The suspect allegedly leaked photos of celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kate Upton amongst many others.

Special Agent Josh Sedowsky described the investigation into the pornographic leaks which sparked privacy concerns last summer.

“Based on victim account records obtained from Apple, one or more computers used at [Herrera’s house] access or attempted to access without authorization multiple celebrities’ e-mail and iCloud accounts over the course of several months,” he wrote.

According to Gawker, the affidavit may confirm the authenticity of the leaked photos for the first time. The document lists several victims by initials who were alleged victims of the leak including: Abigail Spencer, Christina Hendricks, Hope Solo, Jennette McCurdy, Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Emily Browning and Amber Heard.

“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 agent wrote.

FBI agents raided the South Side of Chicago home on 16 October 2014 and left with a Kindle, several cellphones, computers, floppy disks, hard drives and thumb drives, the document revealed.

Mr Hererra has not been charged with any crimes and the FBI has not responded to requests for comment by press time.

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