Crypto Founder Tied to LeakedBB Forum That Hosted Non‑Consensual Nudes

A former Boston track and field coach was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 for attempting to extort and deceive over 100 women, including student-athletes, into sending him explicit photos. According to a 2021 criminal complaint, Steve Waithe stole images from some athletes’ phones under the pretense of filming their athletic form. He also approached victims through fake online accounts, claiming to have found their images on a forum called LeakedBB and offering to help remove them in exchange for more photos.

Authorities stated that Waithe hired a man in October 2020 to hack into the Snapchat accounts of women he knew, stealing and distributing their nude images online. In one post cited by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Waithe wrote, “Does anyone want to trade nudes? I’m talking girls you actually know. Could be exes or whatever. I have quite a few and [am] down to trade over snap[chat] or something.”

Legal documents did not specify where Waithe distributed the images, but Bellingcat identified a cached November 2020 post on LeakedBB with identical wording. Another archived thread showed the same user offering to trade nude photos of athletes, including some he claimed to know personally.

LeakedBB, which was inaccessible as of publication, was a forum where users frequently discussed hacking Snapchat accounts or trading explicit images. While ownership was not mentioned in Waithe’s case, a Bellingcat investigation links the site’s operations to Jitendra Maharaj, a Christchurch-based former pilot and co-founder of the cryptocurrency startup Pay It Now (PIN).

The Press, Bellingcat’s New Zealand partner, contacted Maharaj for comment on June 4 but received no response. By June 6, LeakedBB was offline. Maharaj later stated through his lawyer that he was unaware of who operated the site and suggested the allegations were part of a targeted attack. He did not provide a direct statement addressing the evidence linking him to LeakedBB.

Pay It Now did not respond to requests for comment, and there is no evidence suggesting the company was involved in the forum’s activities.

LeakedBB, launched in 2019, attracted an estimated two million monthly visitors in early 2024. Google’s Transparency Report indicated that over 95,000 requests were made to remove more than 350,000 pages from search results, with Google delisting over 169,000 of them.

The forum’s content primarily consisted of non-consensual explicit material, including hacked or stolen images from platforms like OnlyFans. Experts noted that such sites cause financial harm to creators and violate their intellectual property rights.

Sections of the forum included requests for intimate images of women, with some posts providing names and social media details. Users also shared nude photos and asked for help identifying the individuals depicted.

Non-consensual intimate image sharing, often called “revenge porn,” remains a persistent issue online, despite efforts by platforms to curb its spread.