'Jetflicks' is off the air: Five pay the price for $37.5M illegal TV streaming scheme
Federal investigators say the streaming enterprise, dubbed Jetflicks, resulted in copyright infringement valued at as much as $37.5 million — and that's a conservative estimate. The men were sentenced in late May to prison terms ranging from time served to seven years in federal custody, with final judgments issued on Monday.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the case was the largest-ever involving internet piracy brought to trial, as well as the first involving illegal streaming. The operation, the department said, harmed 'every major copyright owner of a television program in the United States,' constituting millions of dollars' worth of lost revenue.
'By building and running one of the largest unauthorized streaming services in the U.S., these individuals not only stole from content creators and legitimate streaming services; they undermined the integrity of our economy and the rule of law," said Jose A. Perez, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Criminal Investigative Division. 'These sentencings are a reminder that illegal actions have consequences.'
According to court documents and trial evidence, Jetflicks was an online subscription-based service based in Las Vegas through which users could stream and occasionally download copyrighted TV programs without their owners' permission.
At one point, Jetflicks boasted a selection of more than 183,000 different TV episodes, significantly more than licensed streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or Vudu.
Jetflicks 'made available more television episodes than any licensed streaming service on the market,' said Matthew Galeotti, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division.
'This scheme generated millions of dollars in criminal profits and hurt thousands of U.S. companies and individuals who owned the copyrights to these shows but never received a penny in compensation from Jetflicks,' Galeotti said.
According to VdoCipher, a secure hosting and video streaming platform designed to thwart piracy, pirated video material reaps more than 230 billion views globally each year, rivaling or even surpassing the volume of legal platforms. The company cited projections estimating that streaming piracy will cost U.S. video providers over $113 billion in lost revenues by 2027.
Operation made some illegal streams available within a day
The five Nevada men, all of Las Vegas, were convicted after a 14-day trial that ended in June 2024.
Found guilty of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement were Kristopher Lee Dallmann, 42; Douglas M. Courson, 65; Felipe Garcia, 43; Peter H. Huber, 67; and Jared Edward Jaurequi, 44, also known as Jared Edwards. Additionally, Dallman was convicted of money laundering and criminal copyright infringement both by distribution and by performance.
Dallman was sentenced to 84 months in prison, while Huber received an 18-month term. Jaurequi was sentenced to approximately five months already served in addition to 180 days of home confinement and 500 hours of community service.
Garcia was sentenced to 49 days in prison, three years' probation and 1,000 hours of community service, while Courson received a sentence of 48 days in prison and three years' probation.
According to evidence presented at trial, the defendants used automated software and nonstop computer scripts to scour global sites for pirated content. Content was downloaded, processed, stored and made immediately available for streaming and/or downloading to Jetflicks' tens of thousands of paid subscribers, in some cases as soon as the day after it had aired.
The five defendants were among eight people originally indicted in connection with the operation in the Eastern District of Virginia before the case was transferred to the District of Nevada for trial. They performed various roles for Jetflicks ranging from management, content acquisition, customer interface, technical assistance, website design and computer programming and coding, the Justice Department said.
Previously, computer programmer Darryl Polo was sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Virginia in May 2021 to four years and nine months in prison on four counts of criminal copyright infringement and one count of money laundering for his involvement with Jetflicks and an equally large illegal streaming site he ran called iStreamItAll.
Meanwhile, Luis Villarino was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on a count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.
A final defendant, Yoany Vaillant, a Cuban citizen who also did computer programming for Jetflicks, was tried separately from the other five defendants once the case moved to Nevada. In November, Vaillant was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 4.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's field office in Washington, D.C., with the bureau's Las Vegas field office assisting.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Las Vegas men sentenced in $37.5 million illegal streaming operation
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