Christopher Chaney has been arrested for allegedly stealing nude photos from Hollywood celebrities’ cell phones and distributing them on the Internet.
Chaney was named in a multi-count indictment Wednesday in a press conference announcing the arrest, which resulted from an investigation the FBI dubbed Operation “Hackerazzi.”
“This morning we arrested a Florida man who illegally accessed dozens of email accounts,” U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte, Jr. said.” Unfortunately, a lot of what he accessed was nude photographs which were then uploaded to the Internet.”
According to court documents, Chaney went by three aliases in his alleged hacking scheme – “trainreqsuckswhat,” “anonygrrl,” and jaxjaguars911″ – the last of which is the one that perhaps gave him away.
Among the individuals whose accounts Chaney allegedly hacked are actresses Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera and Vanessa Hudgens.
All of them have had private photos leaked on the Internet in the past 12 months.
Private cell phone photos of Johansson surfaced on the Internet in September. One photo showed the actress wearing nothing but a towel, taking a photo of her exposed backside reflected in a mirror. Another photo showed Johansson in a topless self-portrait.
“Just because you’re in the spotlight, or just because you’re an actor or making films or whatever, doesn’t mean that you’re not entitled to your own personal privacy,” Johansson said. “I think no matter what the context, if that is besieged in some way, it feels unjust. It feels wrong.”
Birotte, Jr. said the FBI had a “positive working relationship with several victims who agreed to be named in order to bring awareness to cyber hacking” but that the celebrity status of some of the alleged victims had “no basis on the investigation.”
Three months ago, hackers released nude photos they claimed were of Blake Lively. Lively’s rep denied the photos were of the actress and threatened to sue any web site that published the photos.
If convicted, Chaney faces maximum 121 years in federal prison, with a mandatory minimum of two years.
