Since the start of 2023, UK-based OnlyFans, a major hub for porn content-creators, has paid more than $630 million in dividends to its owner Leonid Radvinsky, the company announced.
The firm also said the number of content creators and fan accounts has leapt by almost a third over 2022 levels, to 4.1 million and 305 million, respectively. Pretax profits grew from $525 million to $658 million in the year ending November 2023. The enterprise has a lean structure, with only 41 employees a director. Though best known for its voluminous sex content, the site does has some other types of content, such as wellness, sports and music.
Radvinsky bought 75% of OnlyFans in 2018, from Guy and Tim Stokely, a father-son duo who launched the platform in 2016 with $12,500. His purchase price is unknown, but thought to be in the millions. In its original form under the Stokelys' ownership, the platform was family-friendly, but Radvinsky quickly mutated it into a "hive of pornography," as Indy100 called it.
OnlyFans is just the tip of 41-year-old Radvinsky's sprawling porn empire, which dates back before his 2002 graduation from Northwestern University, where he studied economics. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Radvnisky ran a group of websites offering access to porn sites via "illegal" and "hacked" passwords, Forbes has reported.
Some of the promoted sites dangled a promise of links to underage performers. One of them, Password Universe, promoted a link to a site supposedly catering to pedophiles with 10,000 "illegal pre-teen passwords." Another site, Working Passes, included in its smutty universe a supposed link to "the hottest underaged hardcore" that featured 16-year-olds. Still another linked to "the hottest bestiality site on the web," according to Forbes.
The magazine noted that "there’s no evidence that any of Radvinsky’s sites actually linked to child pornography or bestiality." Apparently, the business model was all about being paid for clicks that led to other porn sites, and the taboo links on Radvinsky's sites seemingly led to other sites promoting still more links. His next known steps into porn profit came via sites promoting links to celebrity sex tapes, and the launch of MyFreeCams, a major porn-webcam platform.
News of Radvinsky's enormous cash haul comes months after UK regulators announced they were investigating "whether OnlyFans has contravened its duties to implement appropriate measures...to protect under-18s from encountering restricted material such as pornography."
In February, Radvinsky and his wife Katie Chudnovsky reportedly pledged to contribute $11 million to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the highly-influential political group promoting the agenda of the State of Israel in the United States.
Since October 7th, Leonid Radvinsky has contributed more than any other individual to the Israel lobby group AIPAC, according to internal donor records.
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) May 14, 2024
The UK-based wealthy owner of OnlyFans contributed over five times the amount to AIPAC compared to the second-largest donor. pic.twitter.com/uYqbQoMcbO
While The Lever identified him as a donor via an internal donor list the outlet had obtained, Radvinksy denied it, saying, "I didn’t donate or pledge $11M" and adding that his statement “appl[ies] to me / my foundation / my family.” When The Lever asked Radvinsky to explain documentation of a wire transfer from Chudnovsky to AIPAC, he stopped responding.
Born in Odesa, Ukraine, the low-profile Radvinsky now reportedly lives somewhere in Florida and has a Forbes-estimated net worth of $3.8 billion.
