The Shady History Of OnlyFans’ Billionaire Owner | Forbes Investigates | Forbes
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- Опубліковано 6 лип 2021
- OnlyFans was founded in 2016 by a British entrepreneur named Timothy Stokely, now 37, alongside his retired banker father, Guy Stokely, and brother Thomas. In October 2018, Florida-based internet porn baron Leonid Radvinsky, now 39, bought an estimated 75% of the company.
With all film production - adult or otherwise - shuttered during the pandemic and millions of lonely people stuck at home, OnlyFans’ business has boomed. In the year through November 2020, OnlyFans posted revenues of $400 million, up 540% over the prior year, 80% of which came from American customers. The number of creators nearly quintupled to 1.6 million, including more mainstream stars like Cardi B, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, and Rebecca Minkoff. The total number of paying fans rose more than 500% to 82 million. Profits after tax rose to $60 million from $6.6 million. Forbes estimates that Radvinsky’s stake in Fenix International - OnlyFans’ parent company - makes him a new billionaire, worth some $1.8 billion.
Some twenty years ago, before Internet pornography was widely available for free, he ran a small empire of websites that advertised access to “illegal” and “hacked” passwords to porn sites, including ones that were advertised as featuring underage performers. In the late 1990s such link sites were common and were used to market not just pornography but online gambling and other grey market activities.
There’s no evidence that any of Radvinsky’s sites actually linked to child pornography or bestiality. Instead, the sites appear to have been a way for Radvinsky to earn money by charging his partners (actual porn sites) for every click. Forbes, prohibited from accessing such imagery, asked the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a specialist group engaged in the removal of such content on the web, to look at archived webpages containing links advertising underage pornography. According to the IWF, none linked to illegal material.
In the early 2000s, he created a handful of sites linking to celebrity sex tapes and MyFreeCams, a site that claims to be the world’s number one porn-via-webcam service. He has also occasionally popped up in lawsuits. In 2003 and 2004, Amazon and Microsoft sued Radvinsky in U.S. district court in Seattle for alleged spam campaigns that used the Amazon name and Microsoft email tools to offer spam recipients “free money from the government” or links to adult websites. Radvinsky denied all allegations. The cases were settled out of court in 2005, and Radvinsky and his businesses were barred from using Amazon’s name in spam or using any of Microsoft’s email tools. His Cybertania business was sued in 2005 by a model, Sheila Lussier, for using her (clothed) image on one of his porn sites, an allegation the company fought. Lussier says she settled for an undisclosed sum.
OnlyFans has run into its own issues with underage performers. Since the site doesn’t independently verify its sex workers’ ages, it’s fairly easy for people to lie. In late May, a BBC investigation revealed that a 14-year-old girl had been able to register an account as a performer on OnlyFans using her grandmother's passport. A senior police officer told the BBC that OnlyFans is “[N]ot doing enough to put in place the safeguards that prevent children exploiting the opportunity to generate money, but also for children to be exploited." In response, OnlyFans issued a statement that it used “state-of-the-art technology” and “human monitoring” to try to prevent under-18s sharing content on the platform and it took the issue “very seriously.”
Signy Arnason, associate executive director of The Canadian Center for Child Protection, says her group often receives notifications about OnlyFans’ models potentially being underage. She describes OnlyFans’ efforts to protect underage performers as “minimal.” OnlyFans has “a moral and ethical responsibility to be doing better here,” she adds.
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OnlySimps
Low key facts...
@@keith1689 high key....
Factssssssss
It's kinda try tho
Was going to say that
Here's the thing. OF did not start out as some adult themed platform. However. many of the people on that platform turned it into one, just like Tumblr.
I created only fans … and yes you are right about that … it wasn’t supposed to be pouring .. but I knew they were gonna turn it into porn… I’m trying to contact those guys now..
He should be arrested and imprisoned, the site should be shut down.
And here I thought pimping was illegal. The rules always seem to change when cameras are involved.
Truth: SIMPs can make you a billionaire....
He's known that since the 90s.
Thots too.
Forbes how dare you pique my interest and then leave it hanging on a cliff.
love to spend time in White House with onlyfans all the time
Thank you Biden, very cool!
I voted for you to be able to do that
Joe & Jill OnlyFans
Wonder who our president supports
Porn destroy many people lives. Including those who are making, acting and watching. 🤮
Slogans sound good but mean very little
Yes
It depends, anything can destroy people lives if done too many times, think outside the box at the end of the day porn is type of entertainment
@@LazyLoonz eww
Destroys more of those who watch
Yall im still waiting on that Celebrity 100 list.
Ok, now what is the secret history behind Forbes’ billionaire owner?
Click bait
@@toastedcheezez9096 lmao, on the point
What-about-ism at its best lol
Probably the same owner behind Ashley Madison. 🤦♂️😅
Read description
Someone wants a piece of the company
What common b/w radvinsky and forbes.
They both click baited us.
onlyfans is like the devils gate
So what you're telling me is: he use to make sites click baiting pedos, waste their time, not give them any actual illegal content, and also made a boat load of money? 🤔
Yeah maybe I'm missing something but I'm okay with that
Sounds like a man whos willing to do everything to make a buck. Ruthless capitalist without a moral compass.
Why isn’t this longer?!?!?!
If that’s the message u got ; that’s terrible.
Phrasing.
Im not a fan of OF but its convenient this kind of reporting is coming out right after the news that OF is looking for extra funding lol…
Extra funding for what?
And the only accusation is "oh he scammed some pedos"
my girl elsa on that opening clip LFG !!!!!
Pretty sure his dirtyest secret is that he watch all the adult performance personally.
Tat would be a huge time waste. I wouldnt do that
For free
Can you guys do a story on BRIDGER CAPITAL please
can someone count how many times the dude says onlyfans? Its like he's paid to say it.
hes literally the biggest fan of onlyfans itself from this vid lol
Wiki early life checks out...
every single time.
👃🏻
Dont even check. Just know.
He has so much access to content
This was the most non story I've ever seen Forbes make😂
I find it interesting seeing what he was once into
Lonelyfans
Taxes.
I am going to sue that guy. 😡
lol @ "internet porn baron"
Fans.not friend, not family, not personal know, is only a economic relationship....yeah the music of the slave
Bedroom tax.
I'm somehow less informed about the owner of OF after watching that.
Leo is genius
Well, so much for "research". Good job Forbes.
Shamelessness
🤔
Daddy’s don’t let your daughters start a onlyfans
Grow up people are grow up people
Yeah encourage the non over rated ones.
I actually think it's ironic that most of the thrist balls paying money for only fans are just making their daughters more tempted when they hear the big numbers all the dudes supporting it will find their daughters doing the same cause that wats in
Too late
Waste of time. Click bait.
I feel like I should open up my only fans account
Guessing an MTL connection?
What’s tech about onlyfan?
U guys are so brainwashed
Cheers from west Africa
Only fans is a porn site, there I said it
Whoever wrote the headline for this should be fired
so basically NOTHING
Thank for making a video saying it’s about something and then later concluding you don’t know that something… pointless to watch and awful sound quality.
Always them
can forbes ensure non of its employees are subscribed to onlyfans content creators
Ravinsky…..every time
2 comments but nothing here?
You get a like for idk why🤷🏻♂️
@@timstone3447 you’re breathing my air, I don’t know why🤷♂️
@@timstone3447 why even comment? 😂
@@CasaFuenteOrange almost asked you the same.
The internet is weird huh
Whoa 😳 I need to investigate this guy more …….not , who cares ? They guy is legit
Society is dead
I would say that im shocked by him but what I am actually shocked by is the fact that there is so many sick minded people actively seeking this type of content. So much so that it made him a billionaire. Smh
Yeah....anything like that is the work of the devil & you know how temptation works...its a billion dollar industry indeed
@@forward_ever_ever2595 Facts
He was already a millionaire
@@truth4099 a sicko millionaire
Whoever created only fans destroyed the dignity of people
The users and content providers did that also.
He's from Ukraine! Surprised?🤣😂
"Money is the route of all evil."
Tim Stokley isn't from Ukraine.@@mobileandroid5299
@@mobileandroid5299yeah, but he is jew
More content like this forbes
This was so interesting.
Absolutely nothing
0:33 The reporter looks like the type of guy who is a fun of onlyfuns
😂😂😂
information ad for #Onlysimps 😂😂😂😂
Those people deserve lots of malignant narcissists in their lives, same as the people at the top of the porn industry
You clicked on those "Free Password" sites when you were younger, don't lie!
Rather be accused of that than those other ones
Probably the same owner behind Ashley Madison. 🤦♂️
What tool do you use to look at people's internet footprint...? Kinda creepy. I want to see mine so I can erase it lol jk
I think those sites were registered in Onlyfans CEO name.
@@DJ2KA Ahh, that's a good observation.
Why don't these other people just make a Patreon like normal people?
Now they've leveraged the popularity of a nudey site to draw people in
Why ? why ? Why waste money just to jack all of it
👀
This is clickbait
How is this guy different from the Tate brothers?
Astralfans to the moooooon
Only HotTubs 😱
forbes killing its competition
Scam site
This aged well
Its crazy to me that apps like this has become legally trending and has become a normal thing, since this app is basically porn, crazy what the world has become
Only is a PPP,that's what it is and all these fools throwing their money away
That's absolutely true but some of the poor remains poor because I choose to be poor, this video is exactly what they need to change their mindset, I was once as poor as f*ck,but not until a friend introduce me to investment, I'm so happy I now earn weekly 🥰🥰
I will love to be your friend my love, and if you don't mind can you share the tips of the earning
@@isabellabryant3286 I was depressed when I see my children suffer because of financial issues, so a friend introduce me to cryptocurrency trading and investment.
@@aaliyahkareh6318 oh I see!
I guess you're talking about investments, how can one start a great and profitable one
There are lots of investing options (real estate, stocks,gold silver, cryptocurrency, Airbnb,ETFS)
Cryptocurrency will take us to the Moon
@@aaliyahkareh6318 I have had no luck investing in cryptocurrency , I actually invest on my own but my profit ain't always as I expect, sometimes I keep losing money 😥😥😥😥.
The FIRM Ask Epstein
I had 8TB full of Onlyfans content on my Mega cloud and made at least $200 bucks a day selling them on reddit and other adult forums 😅
Hustler
@@adityapawar286 It was all good until an onlyfanser who goes by the name "Babyx" tracked me down and flagged my content on Mega cloud. B*tch has an army of simp-hackers. Lol
Lol
@That's Crazy I'm trying to direct you to a forum site where there's a free onlyfans content but UA-cam keeps deleting my comment.
@That's Crazy I don't have insta man
Why ? why ? Why waste money just to jack all of it