A top Sony executive has been fired after he was allegedly caught in an amateur pedophilia sting operation posted on YouTube.
George Cacioppo — the senior vice president from the team behind PlayStation — allegedly tried to arrange a meeting with a 15-year-old boy, according to a video posted by the YouTube channel People v. Preds.
Cacioppo has been at PlayStation for more than eight years, according to his LinkedIn profile, and he most recently served as senior vice president of engineering. “We are aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment,” Sony said Sunday in a statement to CNET.
Cacioppo didn’t return The Post’s request for comment. He has not been criminally charged. Adam Sharki, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department, said “there is an active investigation being led by the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC).”
In the video, the cameraman walks down a street toward a house that Cacioppo — wearing a black PlayStation 5 T-shirt — is standing in front of. The cameraman, referring to Cacioppo as “Jeff,” asks him whom he’s planning on meeting. “We can have a conversation or I can call the cops,” the cameraman says as Cacioppo turns around and begins to walk back into the house.
Cacioppo closes the door to the house and the cameraman then begins shouting threats that he’ll call the police.
The Post could not access the alleged chat logs between Cacioppo and People v. Peds, but CNET reported that Cacioppo contacted the decoy minor on Grindr, a dating app for gay, bi, trans and queer people. The two exchanged pictures and Cacioppo told the decoy that his name was “Jeff,” according to CNET.
He then allegedly gave his address in order to have sex with the purported 15-year-old boy, according to CNET’s review of the logs.