The boss of Pornhub has spoken out for the first time since his unfinished $16million Montreal mansion was burned to rubble last year.

46-year-old Feras Antoon’s dream manor was reduced to ashes in April last year after a suspected arson attack on the property.

Montreal police were called around 11.30pm on April 25, 2021, in response to reports of two people breaking into the construction area of the home. 

The devastating blaze took nearly three hours and 80 firefighters to put out, with the three-alarm fire continuing to rage on until 2.30am. 

And now in a rare interview, Antoon has alleged one theory that ‘extreme religious groups’ could have acted to incite the arson attack. 

46-year-old Feras Antoon's dream $16million Montreal manor before it burned down
The chateau after the blaze
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46-year-old Feras Antoon’s dream $16million Montreal manor, which backed onto ‘Mafia Row’, was reduced to ashes in April last year after a suspected arson attack on the property 

In a rare interview, Antoon has revealed that he believes extremist religious groups could have been behind the blaze

In a rare interview, Antoon has revealed that he believes extremist religious groups could have been behind the blaze

In a rare interview, Antoon has revealed that he believes extremist religious groups could have been behind the blaze

Speaking to Vanity Fair, he said: ‘Could the extreme religious groups have incited and encouraged someone to do this? Absolutely. 

‘When you use extremist language and QAnon sentiment toward child trafficking, your words are going to attract and mobilize some of the darkest corners of the internet.’ 

In December 2020, DailyMail.com reported that Syrian-born Antoon bought two lots of land for CAN$2.3 million (US$1.8 million) cash four years previously and had spent millions more building the home of his dreams that now sits in piles of rubble. 

The home boasted a nine-car garage, seven bathrooms and eight bedrooms before it went up in flames. 

The property backed on to Montreal’s ‘Mafia Row’ where many crime figures live. 

On the very spot that Antoon’s home had been being built, a gunman stood and fired a single bullet through a double-paned window, killing Nicolo Rizzuto — ‘The Canadian Godfather’ — in his kitchen in 2010. 

The previous owners of the site went to court to win a planning battle to allow 220 trees to be felled to make room for it. 

The Montreal Heritage Council argued that the wooded land should be left alone as it played ‘an important ecological role… particularly with regard to biodiversity, the movement of fauna and the flow of water.’

Permission was only granted to Antoon to build his dream home if he agreed to fund the planting of 160 trees elsewhere.

However, Antoon – who faced a money crunch nightmare with his empire in danger of crumbling following allegations that much of the content on his leading site contains videos of underage girls – had put his unfinished mansion up for sale just weeks before the blaze.   

‘Its site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags,’ wrote Nicholas Kristof in a New York Times column that first exposed Pornhub.

The home, which was still under construction, boasted a nine-car garage, seven bathrooms and eight bedrooms before it went up in flames

The home, which was still under construction, boasted a nine-car garage, seven bathrooms and eight bedrooms before it went up in flames

The home, which was still under construction, boasted a nine-car garage, seven bathrooms and eight bedrooms before it went up in flames

‘A search for ‘girls under18′ or ’14yo’ leads in each case to more than 100,000 videos. Most aren’t of children being assaulted, but too many are.’

Already major credit card companies Mastercard, Visa and Discover have cut ties with Pornhub forcing it to delete 80 percent of its content in a bid to clean up its act. It has also severely curtailed uploading of videos and completely banned downloading.

And lawmakers in both the United States and Canada were drafting legislation to make it easier for child victims to sue companies that post videos of sexual acts.

The mansion, which now lies in ruin, had been listed for $15.9million.

Pictured: Antoon's unfinished chateau as it burned down in a suspected arson attack in April 2021 just after it had been listed for sale

Pictured: Antoon's unfinished chateau as it burned down in a suspected arson attack in April 2021 just after it had been listed for sale

Pictured: Antoon’s unfinished chateau as it burned down in a suspected arson attack in April 2021 just after it had been listed for sale

Speaking to Vanity Fair about his decision to sell the mega mansion, Antoon said: ‘It attracted too much attention. I felt a very negative karma about it. It was supposed to bring joy and I felt it was only bringing negativity, so we decided to sell it.’ 

Antoon runs Pornhub’s parent company MindGeek alongside his Chief Operating Officer David Tassillo. 

Both men have previously testified before the Canadian parliament’s ethics committee on the New York Times allegations.

And explaining why he had granted a rare interview, Antoon said that ignoring questions forever could be seen as ‘dodgy’ – which he says isn’t the impression he wants to give off.

Source: Daily Mail

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