You’d think that someone who works in digital media field would be much more careful about using technology to break the law, but apparently that never occurred to one senior Facebook employee.

As reported by Gizmodo, Dov Katz, head of computer vision at Oculus VR, was arrested recently near Seattle for allegedly soliciting sex from an underage girl. According to police records, Katz sought to pay $350 to have unprotected sex with a young lady he believed was 15 years old.

Katz, 38, has since been charged with attempted commercial sexual abuse of a minor and, according to records, he wasn’t actually texting a 15-year-old girl but instead an undercover officer from the Tukwila Police Department.

An Israeli citizen, Katz has been living in the United States. In the latter part of December he was released on $125,000 bond, the King County jail website said.

Facebook purchased Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. A profile in The Times of Israel said that Katz was “an integral part of the team that developed the Oculus Rift headset.”

As per charging documents that were initially posted by GeekWire, Katz reportedly asked the undercover officer, whom he ‘met’ on a website called Backpage, for an overnight girlfriend experience. In addition, Katz also allegedly asked who he believed was a 15-year-old girl, “How many times to do you think you’ll make me c*m?”

Facebook remaining silent even as media attempts to get some response

The programmer was busted with $600 in cash as he arrived at an Embassy Suites hotel south of Seattle, after he reportedly arranged to meet with who he believed was the underage girl. After his arrest, Katz gave police officers his phone number, which they matched to the number that was sexting the undercover officer.

Gizmodo said it had attempted to contact Facebook for comment but had not heard back from the social media giant.

In a separate report, the website said it had been nearly a week since Katz’s arrest, but Facebook officials had yet to respond to it publicly:

We’ve reached out to Facebook, as well as the head of Oculus public relations, multiple times via phone and email, to see if Katz is still employed at the company or find out if Facebook has any comment on the charges. We have yet to hear anything. Katz was pictured alongside Oculus founder Palmer Luckey in a 2013 Wired story, and was called “an integral part of the team that developed the Oculus Rift headset…

Sources:

Gizmodo.com

TimesOfIsrael.com