- The private equity firm that acquired Pornhub’s parent company won’t reveal who runs MindGeek.
- Ethical Capital Partners told the Financial Times that it would not yet identify MindGeek executives.
- The new owner says he’s keeping their names a secret because of the “stigma” of the porn industry.
The new owner of Pornhub’s parent company said he would not reveal the names of Mindgeek executives yet because there is an “unfortunate stigma” associated with the porn industry.
Ethical Capital Partners, a Canadian private equity firm established last year, announced its acquisition from MindGeek on Thursday for an undisclosed sum. He also owns sites such as YouPorn, Redtube and Brazzers as well as Pornhub, one of the most visited websites in the world.
ECP told the FinancialTimes he wanted to be transparent as the new owners of the company.
Solomon Friedman, an ECP partner, said, “I want to engage regularly with stakeholders, including the media.
However, he added that “at this point we are not identifying the current leaders, as there is an unfortunate stigma” associated with the porn industry.
Friedman is a criminal defense attorney and professor of law at the ECP, founded by Rocco Meliambro, the creator of one of the largest in Canada cannabis retailers.
The fund outlined its plans for MindGeek in a statement. He said he would adopt new online security measures to increase trust and security and invest to “help tackle illegal content online”.
MindGeek was previously controlled by a former banker named Bernd Bergmair, while David Tassillo and Syrian-Canadian programmer Feras Antoon also held stakes.
Antoine and Tassillo joined Pornhub in 2008 and spent more than a decade leading the company before resigned as CEO and COO of MindGeek in June 2022, but remained shareholders.
The acquisition was announced the day after Netflix released a documentary titled “Money Shot: The Pornhub Story”. It examines the dark side of the platform as well as the censorship of sex workers.
It details how a Editorial from the New York Times in December 2020, which accused Pornhub of hosting child pornography sparked public outrage. About six months later, 34 women sued the company and accused him of profiting from doctored videos of them.
The allegations prompted an investigation by Visa and Mastercard, which Temporarily Cut Pornhub of its payment services during the same month.
Antoon and Tassillo were called to testify before a Canadian parliamentary committee in February 2021, as MindGeek is largely run from Montreal.
CTV News reported which Tassillo told the hearing, “I truly believe, in my heart, that we are the safest adult platform in the world right now.”
ECP did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.