YouTuber Bill Omar Carrasquillo, better known as Omi in A Hellcat has been sentenced to 5.5 years imprisonment with an order to forfeit $30 million assets following his large-scale cable-piracy scheme.
The $30 million assets include $6 million in cash and his extensive car collection featuring Lamborghinis, Porsches, Bentleys, and McLarens. The YouTuber is known for creating videos flaunting his wealth, which includes a portfolio of properties in Philadelphia and its surrounding area.
He will have to bargain all of this finances following one of the most curious cable-piracy schemes prosecuted by the U.S. government. Let’s discover more about this scheme that costed him his wealth and freedom.
Omi in A Hellcat’s multi-million dollar cable-piracy scheme explained
According to Omar’s lawyer, the YouTuber came from a rough past with his family’s involvement in the narcotics business and created one of the most cutting-edge entertainment technology in 2016. His cable company was known as Gears TV and Gears Reloaded.
It was one of the leading cable options among IPTV services, which are worth $1 billion a year in the United States.
Gears TV provided its subscribers with hundreds of on-demand movies and television shows. Additionally, it provided access to dozens of live cable channels and pay-per-view events.
The attractive aspect of this scheme was its affordable pricing of $15 per month. However, all of it was stolen from legitimate services like Comcast, Verizon FiOS, and DirecTV.
The service was wildly successful and attracted more than 100,000 subscribers. This resulted in more than $34 million gross revenue when federal investigators shut it down in 2019.
Despite Omar’s guilty plea, he and his lawyer both insisted that Gears TV had at least initially operated within a legal gray area in Tuesday’s trial.
The debates during the trial for Omar’s cable-piracy scheme
https://youtu.be/vGSSRbKXxpM
In 2022, Congress signed an act protecting lawful streaming due to the rise of subscription-based streaming networks. According to this, Omi in A Hellcat’s cable fell into the pirated area.
Refuting it, Omar released a couple of YouTube videos claiming he had paid for all of the cable services that he was accused of stealing.
In the video titled The FBI Seized Everything From Me, he explained his business was providing a share of his cable at minimum price, using the analogy of inviting a friend over to share your television at pay-per-view cost. He considers himself guilty of making money and nothing else.
However, the prosecutors didn’t agree with the analogy and emphasized the whole business was illegal from the get-go. Jason Gull, a senior attorney in the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, noted the revenue involved.
According to his statistics, Omar’s business generated more profit than any other copyright defendant he had seen. He confirmed to the general public and Omi in A Hellcat’s fans that this was an offense that deserves a significant sentence.
https://youtu.be/Kvb2bJP4JUs
Omar acknowledged prosecutors’ accusations following a change of heart, which he mentioned in another video. He saw the making of a Pixar animated film and understood the efforts necessary in the production of entertainment, realizing the makers were the victims of his illegal business.
Moreover, he promised to lead a better life, focusing on his family and the legal business of YouTube and online marketing upon his release after completing the 5.5-year sentence.
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