MONTREAL—Montreal police arrested a suspect this week in an ongoing arson investigation into who and what caused a fire that burned down a mansion owned by a former senior executive of Pornhub’s parent company.
Pornhub is owned by Aylo, which was previously known as MindGeek before a rebranding pushed by a new ownership group, the Ottawa-based Ethical Capital Partners private equity firm. The owner of the property that was set ablaze is Feras Antoon, a co-founder of MindGeek. He served as chief executive officer of the firm until he resigned, and now only retains his shares in the company.
Claudy Lafond, 39, was arrested on suspicion of arson, possession of incendiary material and breaking and entering, law enforcement say. Lafond is accused of lighting on fire the mansion valued at over $19 million that belonged to Antoon back in 2021.
Lafond appeared in Montreal criminal court to answer these charges on Wednesday.
According to local news coverage on the arrest, Montreal police have investigated this case for many years since and expect further arrests. It is also worth noting that police did not have to go far to arrest Lafond.
Lafond is facing charges in other cases including arson and attempted murder. At the time of his arrest, he was being held in the local Établissement de détention Montréal – Bordeaux, or the Bordeaux jail.
There is no further indication of motive for the arson. At the time, Antoon was in the hot seat before the Canadian House of Commons Ethics Committee investigating allegations lodged against Pornhub via the controversial reporting of New York Times opinion contributor Nicholas Kristof. Kristof accused MindGeek at the time of profiting from sex trafficking and crimes against children.
Some in the news media speculated that the arson against Antoon’s property could have been a form of retaliation. Vanity Fair ran an expose on the subject in February 2022, sifting through the possible leads and theories of what led to the fire. Antoon was interviewed for the piece.
