Football fans have been sent a stark warning after a man was given a lengthy prison sentence and told to pay some £24million over a large-scale TV piracy case.
YouTube star Bill Omar Carrasquillo, better known to his more than 800,000 online followers as “Omi in a Hellcat”, has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for running one of the largest TV piracy schemes ever prosecuted by the US government.
As part of his sentencing on Tuesday, Carrasquillo was forced to forfeit some $30million (£24million) in assets, including almost $6million (£4.8million) in cash, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Bentleys, and McLarens and a portfolio of over a dozen properties across Philadelphia and its suburbs.
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Upon announcing the punishment during a hearing in federal court, U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III said: “Thirty million dollars is a lot of money [but] tangible objects aren’t everything.
“You have a large following and there may be people who think if you can get away with it, they can too.”
Meanwhile, Carrasquillo apologised to his family, employees, and the TV companies he’d cheated through his business, which illegally sold content hijacked from cable boxes to thousands of online subscribers, who would pay fees as low as $15 a month.
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“I really didn’t know the significance of this crime until I was picked up [by the FBI] at my home,” the 36-year-old said. “I feel like I let everybody down.”
Carrasquillo’s crimes included counts of conspiracy, copyright infringement, fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion.
His company, launched in 2016 and known by names such as Gears TV and Gears Reloaded, was a leader among so-called illicit IPTV services.
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It provided its subscribers hundreds of on-demand movies and television shows as well as dozens of channels and pay-per-view events at a cup price rate. The material was stolen from legitimate services like Comcast, Verizon FiOS, and DirecTV.
In the UK a contingent of football fans using similar illegal IPTV services to stream Premier League and Champions League matches.
Topics: Football, Premier League, Champions League
Chris Byfield