SCOTTSDALE, AZ — A man is facing charges for allegedly secretly recording women without their consent in Arizona, California and Singapore.
In 2020, law enforcement officials in Scottsdale were alerted by security at a large company that a male employee was found to have surreptitious recordings on his work-issued electronics.
The company went on to say it was getting reports of traffic to pornography sites on company-owned and issued electronics owned by the same male employee.
At that time, the company asked the employee, identified as a 48-year-old man, to bring in the devices so they could look at them for work purposes, according to court documents.
The employee took in the devices, an iPhone and two MacBooks, and provided his passwords.
While inspecting the devices, the company reportedly found there were multiple recordings taken without the knowledge of the women being recorded.
Court documents reveal that more than 100 items were discovered, either photos or videos, appearing to be surreptitious in nature. Two of the videos were recorded at the company’s location in Scottsdale, near Scottsdale and Bell roads.
One of the women in the video was identified as a female employee. She was notified of the situation, according to authorities.
Other videos were taken in various locations, in which a recording device was aimed at women at inappropriate angles in various private and public locations.
In one video, a male can be seen setting up the recording device and later taking it down. The company identified the male as their same employee.
Several other videos showed that they were taken in California at the company’s Costa Mesa location.
Multiple employees from the company at that location were recognized in the videos.
The company advised law enforcement that the devices were issued to the employee in question and it was not customary or allowed to lend the devices to other employees.
The employee was suspended after the materials were found and the company’s HR team met with him to confront him, which prompted him to apologize and acknowledge that what he did was wrong. When asked if they would find videos of women, he replied yes. After this meeting, the employee was let go from the company.
The devices were turned over to detectives for forensic analysis, where multiple similar videos recorded at the company’s Singapore location were found. Some videos were dated as far back as 2011.
At least one victim that was identified, was contacted by detectives. She stated she never consented to be recorded and she did have several monthly meetings with the employee in question as she reported to him, which were at the Scottsdale location of the company, according to documents.
The 48-year-old man was then contacted by law enforcement. He is facing charges of unlawful surreptitious photography.
