Pornhub CEO Breaks Silence On Fire That Ravaged His 16million Mansion

The boss of Pornhub has spoken out for the first time since his unfinished $16million Montreal mansion was burned to rubble last year.
46-year-old Feras Antoon's dream manor was reduced to ashes in April last year after a suspected arson attack on the property.
The blaze on April 25, 2021, reduced the house to nothing more than ashes just weeks after Antoon had put the opulent manor up for sale - at a price of $15.9million.
Following an opinion article in the  in 2020 which claimed Pornhub 'monetizes child rapes', the website has been hit with allegations of allowing videos of underage girls being assaulted to be uploaded onto their website. 
This has led to a backlash against Antoon and his adult film empire - resulting in tumbling profits and forcing him to list his lavish manor, despite construction on the property not having been completed.
But only weeks later, the security team in charge of monitoring the construction site noticed two unidentifiable individuals gaining access to the site in April 2021, with the property quickly seen burning down only a short while later. 
The devastating blaze took nearly three hours and 80 firefighters to put out, and now in a rare interview, Antoon has alleged one theory that 'extreme religious groups' could have acted to incite the arson attack. 
Speaking to , he said: 'Could the extreme religious groups have incited and encouraged someone to do this? Absolutely. 
'When you use extremist language and QAnon sentiment toward child trafficking, your words are going to attract and mobilize some of the darkest corners of the internet.' 
46-year-old Feras Antoon's dream $16million Montreal manor (pictured before the blaze), which backed onto 'Mafia Row', was reduced to ashes in April last year after a suspected arson attack on the property
Pictured: The burnt shell of the mansion after firefighters were finally able to extinguish the flames, back in April 2021
The blaze took about 80 firefighters to put out the inferno that raged on into the early hours of the morning
Antoon - who faced a money crunch nightmare with his empire in danger of crumbling following allegations that much of the content on his leading site contains videos of underage girls - had put his unfinished mansion up for sale just weeks before the blaze.   
'Its site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of big sexy women xxx showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags,' wrote Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times column that first exposed Pornhub.
In a rare interview, Antoon has revealed that he believes extremist religious groups could have been behind the blaze
'A search for 'girls under18' or '14yo' leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos. Most aren't of children being assaulted, but too many are.'
Pornhub responded to the Times that the claims were 'irresponsible and flagrantly untrue.' 
But major credit card companies Mastercard, Visa and Discover cut ties with Pornhub forcing it to delete 80 per cent of its content in a bid to clean up its act. It has also severely curtailed uploading of videos and completely banned downloading.
And lawmakers in both the United States and Canada were drafting legislation to make it easier for child victims to sue companies that post videos of sexual acts.
Following the New York Times' opinion piece, more than three dozen women sued the website, alleging that it acted as a 'classic criminal enterprise', profiting from content showing rape, child pornography, sex trafficking and other nonconsensual activity.
Additionally, the lawsuit also alleged that MindGeek - Pornhub's parent company - also bought in bulk content produced by human traffickers. 
In October last year, MindGeek settled the legal case outside of court with 50 women who claimed to have been victims of a sex-trafficking operation.
The big sexy women xxx alleged that adult content provider Girls Do Porn coerced them into having sex on camera, but were dishonest about how the content would be shared - with the woman claiming Pornhub continued its partnership with the firm despite being aware of the allegations. 
The settlement terms were not made public, but in a statement MindGeek said it had zero tolerance over the posting of illegal content on its platforms.
The statement read: 'MindGeek has zero tolerance for the posting of illegal content on its platforms, and has instituted a comprehensive, industry-leading trust and safety policy to identify and eradicate any illegal material from its community.' 
The home, which was still under construction, boasted a nine-car garage, seven bathrooms and eight bedrooms before it went up in flames
The mansion (pictured is an artist's impression of the final build) was listed for sale on real estate website Centris for $19.8 million just weeks ago 
The house (pictured is a digital concept art of the end result) had seven bathrooms, four powder rooms and nine parking spaces
'We are committed to remaining at the forefront of internet safety, and taking every measure to prevent bad actors from posting illegal content online. If you adored this information and you would such as to receive additional information pertaining to watch my wife xxx kindly check out our web-site. '
While Brian Holm, the lawyer who represented the big sexy women xxx, said in an emailed statement: 'The Parties reached a mutual resolution to resolve the dispute and the terms are confidential.' 
On the backfoot, Pornhub also said last year that it introduced enhanced safety features which only permitted verified content creators to upload videos onto their website. 
Speaking to Vanity Fair about his decision to sell the mega mansion, Antoon said: 'It attracted too much attention. I felt a very negative karma about it. It was supposed to bring joy and I felt it was only bringing negativity, so we decided to sell it.' 
Antoon runs Pornhub's parent company MindGeek alongside his Chief Operating Officer David Tassillo. 
RELATED ARTICLES



Share this article
Share


Both men have previously testified before the Canadian parliament's ethics committee on the New York Times allegations.
And explaining why he had granted a rare interview, Antoon said that ignoring questions forever could be seen as 'dodgy' - which he says isn't the impression he wants to give off. 
On the night of the suspected arson attack, Montreal police were called the property around 11.30pm in response to reports of two people breaking into the construction area of the home. 
In December 2020, DailyMail.com reported that Syrian-born Antoon bought two lots of land for CAN$2.3 million (US$1.8 million) cash four years previously and had spent millions more building the home of his dreams that now sits in piles of rubble. 
Pictured: Antoon's unfinished chateau as it burned down in a suspected arson attack in April 2021 just after it had been listed for sale
Photos taken the morning after the blaze show the charred remains of what once was once Antoon's multi-million dollar dream home that sat on land next to the Bois-de-Saraguay nature park on the northern edge of Montreal
Montreal police were called around 11.30pm on April 25, 2021, to reports of two people breaking into the construction area of the home
The property backs on to Montreal's 'Mafia Row' where many crime figures live. On the very spot that Antoon's home is being built, a gunman stood and fired a single bullet through a double-paned window, killing Nicolo Rizzuto — 'The Canadian Godfather' — in his kitchen in 2010
The home boasted a nine-car garage, seven bathrooms and eight bedrooms before it went up in flames. 
The property backed on to Montreal's 'Mafia Row' where many crime figures live. 
On the very spot that Antoon's home had been being built, a gunman stood and fired a single bullet through a double-paned window, killing Nicolo Rizzuto — 'The Canadian Godfather' — in his kitchen in 2010. 
The previous owners of the site went to court to win a planning battle to allow 220 trees to be felled to make room for it. 
The Montreal Heritage Council argued that the wooded land should be left alone as it played 'an important ecological role… particularly with regard to biodiversity, the movement of fauna and the flow of water.'
Permission was only granted to Antoon to build his dream home if he agreed to fund the planting of 160 trees elsewhere. 

adverts.addToArray("pos":"inread_player")Advertisement


data-track-module="am-external-links^external-links">
Read more:






DM.later('bundle', function()
DM.has('external-source-links', 'externalLinkTracker');
);