George Cacioppo has been senior vice president of engineering at PlayStation Network for over eight years. He was recently fired by PlayStation after appearing in a sting video that brought allegations of pedophilia against him, as reported by CNET.
Cacioppo was recorded in a video uploaded to YouTube by an amateur pedophilia sting group People v. Preds, wherein he was allegedly caught trying to arrange a sexual encounter with a 15 year-old boy he met on the social media app Grindr. Cacioppo is said to have exchanged pictures and provided them a fake name and the address of his home, and was allegedly waiting outside his home for their arrival when he was recorded and caught in the video.
PlayStation confirmed in a statement provided to CNET that Cacioppo has been fired, saying, “We are aware of the situation and the employee in question has been terminated from employment.”
It’s unknown if law enforcement has become involved in the issue, though the aforementioned group People v. Preds told Kotaku, “The police department doesn’t work with ‘Cyber groups’ like us. That’s when the internet takes over.” That said, the group also says that “evidence has been turned into the authorities.”