Web Porn Kingpin's Canadian Mansion Goes Up in Flames

The Montreal mansion of web porn executive Feras Antoon has reportedly been burned down in a suspected arson attack. Antoon is the CEO of Mindgeek, the parent company of Pornhub, and had placed the mansion for sale at a price of $19,800,000.

VICE News reports that police suspect that the mansion of Feras Antoon, the CEO of Pornhub’s parent company, was set on fire in an arson attack yesterday. Police stated that they were called to a property in Montreal’s upper-class Ahuntsic-Cartierville neighborhood at 11:30 p.m. when two individuals were seen trespassing on the property.

A media relations officer for the Montreal Police stated that when authorities arrived on the scene, they found the property ablaze. The fire was so large that more than 80 firefighters were called to fight the blaze and neighbors were forced to evacuate nearby properties.

The fire was under control by 2:30 a.m. and no one was hurt in the blaze. Julien Lévesque, a media relations officer for Montreal Police, stated:

Police officers who arrived on site were able to see that the fire began inside the residence. Earlier this morning… our arson squad from Montreal police took charge of the investigation.

They were onsite this morning to analyze all the scene, meet some witnesses to try to understand what was the cause and the circumstances of the beginning of this fire.

Antoon told VICE in a statement: “Over the weekend, a fire occurred at my residence. The residence was under construction. I am grateful that my family and I and our neighbours are safe. Out of respect for the ongoing police investigation, I will not be commenting further.”

The property is still under construction but was recently put up for sale by Antoon. It is currently unknown why Antoon is selling the property, according to local media.

The property is quite large and is listed for sale at $19,800,000. The property sits on 1.4 acres, has eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, and was planned to have multiple elevators.

MindGeek has been under scrutiny from the Canadian parliament since December when the access to information, privacy, and ethics committee attempted to bring the company in for testimony about its “failure to prohibit rape videos and other illegal content from its site.”

The investigation from parliament followed pressure in late 2020 from anti-trafficking and anti-pornography groups such as the National Center for Sexual Exploitation and Exodus Cry that claim that abusive imagery runs rampant on MindGeeks sites.