Lawyer, 26, the heart of Hulk Hogan’s sex video law suit against Gawker was forced to lie for years

Young Australian lawyer who masterminded Hulk Hogan’s sex video lawsuit to bring down gossip empire Gawker to help a scorned Silicon Valley billionaire reveals how he had to keep his job top secret from family and friends

  • Young lawyer behind sex tape law suit against Gawker was forced to lie for years
  • Aron D’Souza, 33, spent five years coordinating a secret plan to destroy Gawker 
  • Mr D’Souza revealed the difficulty of having to lie to his family and boyfriend

The young lawyer who was at the heart of Hulk Hogan’s sex video law suit against Gawker was forced to lie about his undercover operation for years.

Aron D’Souza, 33, from Melbourne known as ‘Mr A’, was one of the masterminds, which brought down the notorious American gossip blog.

Mr D’Souza, only 26 at the time, coordinated a team of lawyers on behalf of Silicon Valley’s tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who had a long grudge against Gawker for revealing he was gay in a 2007 blog post.

‘It was this extremely tough thing to do … I couldn’t tell my boyfriend,’ Mr D’Souza, who worked on the secret plan for five years, told The Australian.

Aron D’Souza (pictured), who was at the heart of Hulk Hogan’s sex video law suit against Gawker was forced to keep his operation a secret for years 

Gossip blog Gawker secretly filmed a sex tape of Hogan being intimate with his best friend's wife Heather Cole (pictured left) 

Gossip blog Gawker secretly filmed a sex tape of Hogan being intimate with his best friend’s wife Heather Cole (pictured left) 

Mr Thiel, who was determined to bring Gawker down for exposing his sexuality, turned to Mr D’Souza who had a grand plan.

Mr D’Souza’s aim was to secretly fund Hogan’s lawsuit, who had a stronger case than Mr Theil’s.

In 2012, Gawker published a sex video of Hogan being intimate with his best friend’s wife, Heather Cole, which was filmed without his consent.  

In January, Mr Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and an original Facebook investor, made an offer to buy the controversial news site after it was shut down the following the massive law suit.   

The grand plan resulted in the jury awarding Hogan a total of $US140 million and later settled for $US31 million. 

‘I had to come up with these explanations for why I was travelling all the time,’ said the young lawyer.

‘My cover story was that I was doing intellectual property consulting … which is so boring, no one says ‘tell me more’.’

Mr D'Souza's secret grand plan resulted in the jury awarding Hogan a total of $US140 million

Mr D’Souza’s secret grand plan resulted in the jury awarding Hogan a total of $US140 million

Peter Thiel (pictured), who was determined to bring Gawker down for exposing his sexuality, turned to Mr D'Souza who had the grand plan

Peter Thiel (pictured), who was determined to bring Gawker down for exposing his sexuality, turned to Mr D’Souza who had the grand plan

Mr D’Souza said Gawker had received over 3000 complaint letters about their content, which included celebrities, CEOs and multinational corporations, who did not have ‘the fortitude to actually do anything.’

‘I like doing things that other people think are impossible,’ he said.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk