FOX 13 in Tampa is reporting a former employee of radio jockey Todd “Bubba The Love Sponge” Clem was responsible for leaking the now infamous Hulk Hogan sex tape after stealing it from his employer’s office.
According to the report, Matt “Spiceboy” Loyd stole several sex tape DVD’s from Bubba’s office, and then sold clips of the tape to TMZ to “build interest.” Loyd reportedly then contacted a sex-tape broker named Keith Davidson to “engage in the extortion of Terry Bollea”, and tried to cover his tracks by having a middleman acting on his behalf.
Detectives involved in the case named Loyd’s wife’s high school best friend as the person recruited, and say she was to be paid $10,000 for her part in the scheme. The woman, Lori Burbridge, told detectives she was instructed to meet with Davidson to finalize” negotiations with Bollea and his lawyer”, and also said Loyd made up a story about him getting the tapes at a yard sale by Clem. Burbridge also said Loyd leaked pictures of the tape to TheDirty.com and TMZ, and was paid $8,500, which she ended up claiming on tax forms before later returning a cashier’s check to Loyd for $8,000.
In addition to creating a fake story about the source of the tape, Burbridge says Loyd tried to hide his part in the scheme by using multiple fake email accounts and used an alias with Gawker Media, who published the tape and the group Hogan (Bollea) is suing.
