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Bill Omar Carrasquillo, also known as Omi in a Hellcat Online, has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after successfully running a large-scale cable television piracy scheme. It was revealed that authorities have seized his bank account that contained over $5.2 million in cash and several other luxury vehicles. The content creator also took to his YouTube channel and admitted guilt.
On Tuesday, Omi in a Hellcat was demanded to let go of his $30 million in assets that included six million dollars in cash, multiple properties across Philadelphia and its suburbs and a series of luxury vehicles that included Lamborghinis, Porsches, Bentlyes and McLarens among others.
In a video titled Omi in a Hellcat is guilty, the YouTuber expressed sadness over losing his sizeable fortune and said:
“Ignorance is no excuse. It’s about accepting responsibility. To me, it’s narcissistic behavior, the s**t that I do. I’m always the victim. America is against me. No, I wouldn’t have had this issue if I hadn’t created this service, that’s a fact. It just sucks. It sucks to lose my house, to lose properties, money, all my cars, my jewelry. It’s an embarrassment.”
In another view titled THE FBI SEIZED EVERYTHING FROM ME, Bill Carrasquillo opined that he was simply “guilty of making money… I ain’t guilty of nothing else.”
What did Omi in a Hellcat aka Bill Carrasquillo do?
New York’s Michael Barone and California’s Jesse Gonzales have also been charged for allegedly taking part in Bill Carrasquillo's large-scale television piracy scheme. The trio allegedly used legitimate cable subscriptions from companies like Verizon, DirecTV and Comcast, and stripped them of copyright protections to stream the content online on servers controlled by Omi in a Hellcat. The trio employed Chinese encoders to make their fraud business venture a success.
Several customers simply had to pay Omi in a Hellcat and his team a monthly $15 fee to subscribe to their illegal streaming services which showcased sporting events and other shows and movies including Game of Thrones, Bones etc.
Carrasquillo’s company which took on the names of Gears TV and Gears Reloaded amassed success and over 100,000 subscribers. He also made more than $34 million in revenue before they were shut down in 2019, when investigation took over.
Speaking about Omi in a Hellcat’s crime, Jason Gull, a senior attorney in the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, said that the defendant had made more money than “every other copyright defendant I’ve ever seen.” Gull added:
“The message to the general public and Mr. Carrasquillo’s many, many fans is that this was a serious offense that should yield significant punishment.”
During Carrasquillo’s sentencing he did not fight the prosecutor’s request that he must pay $11 million to cable companies in restitution and an additional $5.7 million to the IRS for failing to pay taxes.
The YouTuber promised to focus on his family and legitimize his business ventures, including YouTube and other online marketing businesses, once he is released from prison.
