Dov Katz, the head of computer vision at Oculus VR, was arrested near Seattle on December 21 for allegedly soliciting sex from an underage girl. According to charging records, Katz allegedly attempted to pay $US350 ($486) to have unprotected sex with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl.
Dov Katz
Katz, 38, has been charged with attempted commercial sexual abuse of a minor. According to the charging documents, Katz wasn’t actually texting a 15-year-old girl, but an undercover agent from the Tukwila Police Department. Katz, an Israeli citizen living in America, has since been released on $US125,000 ($173,745) bail according to the King County jail website.
King County
Facebook bought Oculus for $US2 ($3) billion in 2014. According to a profile in The Times of Israel, Katz was “an an integral part of the team that developed the Oculus Rift headset.”
According to charging documents initially posted by GeekWire, Katz allegedly asked the undercover officer, whom he met on the website Backpage, for an overnight girlfriend experience. Katz also allegedly asked the girl, “how many times do you think you’ll make me cum?”
Katz was arrested with $US600 ($834) in cash when he arrived at an Embassy Suites hotel just south of Seattle, after he allegedly arranged a meeting with someone he believed to be the underage girl. Following the arrest, Katz told officers his phone number, which matched the phone number that was texting the undercover officer.
Here are the charging documents:
GeekWire
GeekWire
We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment and will update this story if we hear back.