Burning Down The House

January 18, 2022 2:46 PM

When the CEO of Pornhub’s mega-mansion mysteriously burned to the ground, there was no shortage of possible suspects. Now, for the first time, the site’s shadowy founders tell their story: XXX-Files: Who Torched the Pornhub Palace? [Vanity Fair] [Archive version] [story is technically SFW but it's about Pornhub so it's probably NSFW]
posted by chavenet (16 comments total)

That garden-path sentence took me three tries. I kept thinking, why does Pornhub’s mega-mansion have its own CEO?
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 5:18 PM on January 18, 2022 [22 favorites]

It was the xvideos guys wasn't it? Anyhoo, off to read the article
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 6:10 PM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

As a resident of Oregon, I do really want to ask Nicholas Kristof "what was the deal with obscuring the intent of Traffickinghub?" Maybe I'll have that opportunity. But, also, Traffickinghub?

Anyways, too bad that guys house burned down. The article strongly implies it was the mob and I'm inclined to believe them. I don't feel they would appreciate the association even if it was purely geographical. "We're running an upstanding, law-abiding business here and we don't need the attention."
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 6:26 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

“ vertically integrated multichannel jack stack” is certainly a sentence I never imagined could exist
posted by dorothy hawk at 6:35 PM on January 18, 2022 [5 favorites]

(Regrettably, it turns out "throatpie" is a thing, or maybe people are trying to make it a thing? I lost that bet with myself. I was sure the author had made it up.)
posted by flexible-footwear figurine at 7:07 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Furthermore, fantabulous timewaster, my brain decided that Pornhub's mansion's CEO burned to the ground, poor fellow. Critical thinking was jogging to elbow that thought out of the way, but didn't manage to do so fast enough to spare inflicting the somewhat alarming visual on me.

Only somewhat alarming because mixed in there was "To the ground? Why did he just stand there? Wait."
posted by tllaya at 7:22 PM on January 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

my brain decided that Pornhub's mansion's CEO burned to the ground, poor fellow.

"Shame if something were to happen to him. I mean, CEOs do catch on fire sometimes, don't they? It's the, whatchamacallit, spontaneous confabulation."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:27 PM on January 18, 2022 [9 favorites]

That mansion burning down…I bet that was hot.
posted by schyler523 at 8:26 PM on January 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

It seems like the CEO wants to make Pornhub into a legitimate business but his nature keeps tripping them up.
posted by interogative mood at 9:08 PM on January 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

"Fighting fire with fire..."
posted by DJZouke at 5:26 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

They do get to a reasonable whodunnit by the end. Hubris plays a part, though not in the way the author sets it up.
posted by bonehead at 5:26 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Googled "throatpie" and got a subreddit that proudly bills itself as "Dedicated to the ONLY proper way to finish a mouth hug!" So now I've got two new terms in my vocabulary.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:15 AM on January 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Now I've got three, thanks Halloween Jack. Does that involve an augured out pumpkin or....
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:03 AM on January 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

"Fighting fire with fire..."

Big difference between it burns when I pee versus where I pee.
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 10:35 AM on January 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

The fact that he was reached on his land line says to me he either did it or was in on it. The land line helps establish his alibi— your honor my client couldn’t of been at the scene setting the fire because he was talking ion a land line far away, he spoke with several people — they’ll all swear they spoke to him and here is the phone company records showing it wasn’t forwarded and it was in use at the time.

And he doesn’t want to rebuild his dream house anymore; and has decided to just take the cash; try to sell the land. All this happened when his business was allegedly in a cash crunch.

I don’t buy this being an act of arson by some religious fanatic / stalker. Once that person goes from making threats to taking steps they don’t go away if nothing happens to them or to their target. They don’t burn your empty house down and then vanish if you don’t take down that terrible website.

My opinion is that the police suspect him, and have no other suspects; but can’t prove it; so it’s just going to sit there officially unsolved until someone involved gets caught doing something else and offers up the boss to keep out of jail.
posted by interogative mood at 2:17 PM on January 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

interogative mood, it might be, it seems easier to me to just finish building the damn thing and sell it afterwards than to orchestrate the arson, but who's ever heard of a tech person unreachable on his phone???

The Montreal mafia doesn't fuck around though, and they know how to get somebody to burn a house down and shut up about it. If he suspects his future neighbors, that's a good incentive to just drop it.

And... 16 millions? WTF were the walls gold platted? The location is ok but not great, you've got neighbors super close to you all around. For a cool 5 mill you can get this superb mid century water front bungalow, it might needs a bit a refresh to feel "new", but it has character, and an actual great location.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 7:54 PM on January 19, 2022 [2 favorites]