Source: United States Attorneys General
Yesterday, the final judgments were issued for five Nevada men, including a citizen of Germany, who were sentenced on May 29 and 30 to terms of up to 84 months in prison for running Jetflicks, one of the largest illegal television streaming services in the United States.
“The defendants operated Jetflicks, an illegal paid streaming service that made available more television episodes than any licensed streaming service on the market,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of 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. The sentences issued in this case demonstrate the Criminal Division’s commitment to protect American creativity and to ensure that large-scale infringers are brought to justice and punished for their crimes.”
“Digital crimes are not victimless crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada. “The copyright owners lost millions of dollars as a result of the illegal paid streaming service. These sentences underscore our joint commitment with the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and FBI to deter and disrupt intellectual property crime via thorough investigation and prosecution of those who violate federal intellectual property laws.”
“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 Assistant Director Jose A. Perez of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “These sentencings are a reminder that illegal actions have consequences. The FBI and our partners are unwavering in our commitment to protect intellectual property rights and hold criminals accountable.”
After a 14-day trial that ended in June 2024, a federal jury in the District of Nevada convicted Kristopher Lee Dallmann, 42; Peter H. Huber, 67; Jared Edward Jaurequi, also known as Jared Edwards, 44; Felipe Garcia, 43; and Douglas M. Courson, 65, all of Las Vegas, of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. The jury also convicted Dallmann of criminal copyright infringement by distribution, criminal copyright infringement by public performance, and money laundering. Subsequently, the court sentenced Dallmann to 84 months in prison; Huber to 18 months in prison; Jaurequi to time served (almost 5 months in prison), 180 days of home confinement, and 500 hours of community service; Garcia to three years probation with 49 days in prison and 1000 hours of community service; and Courson to three years probation with 48 days in prison.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, the defendants ran a site called Jetflicks, an online subscription-based service headquartered in Las Vegas, that permitted users to stream and at times download copyrighted television programs without the permission of the relevant copyright owners. At one point, Jetflicks claimed to have 183,285 different television episodes, significantly more than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Amazon Prime, or any other licensed streaming service. This was the largest internet piracy case — as measured by the estimated total infringement amount and total number of infringements — ever to go to trial as well as the first illegal streaming case ever to go to trial. The defendants’ conduct harmed every major copyright owner of a television program in the United States. Copyright owners lost millions of dollars from the operation.
Evidence presented at trial showed that the defendants used automated software and computer scripts that ran constantly to scour sites around the world hosting pirated content. The software and scripts would download, process, and store illegal content, and then make it immediately available on servers in the United States and Canada to tens of thousands of paid subscribers located throughout the United States for streaming and/or downloading. The defendants often delivered episodes to subscribers the day after the shows originally aired on television. The service was not only available to subscribers over the internet but specifically designed to work on many different types of devices, platforms, and software.
Each defendant performed at least one and often multiple roles at Jetflicks including management, computer programming and coding, design of the website, applications, and customer interface, technical assistance, content acquisition, subscriptions and revenue, and customer support.
Dallmann reaped millions of dollars in profit from the operation. The government conservatively estimated the value of the copyright infringement in the case at $37.5 million. This included the approximate retail value of the defendants’ reproduction of infringing works to create the Jetflicks inventory as well as the approximate retail value of the streams of pirated television episodes that the defendants provided to subscribers.
The five defendants sentenced were among eight defendants originally indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia in connection with operating Jetflicks. In addition to the defendants just sentenced in Nevada, defendant Darryl Polo previously pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to four counts of criminal copyright infringement and one count of money laundering for his involvement with Jetflicks as well as an equally large illegal streaming site he ran called iStreamItAll. Similarly, defendant Luis Villarino also previously pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. In May 2021, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Virginia sentenced Polo and Villarino to, respectively, 57 months in prison and 12 months and a day in prison.
After the case was transferred to the District of Nevada for trial, defendant Yoany Vaillant was tried separately from the other five remaining defendants. In November 2024, after an eight-day trial, a federal jury convicted Vaillant of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. Vaillant is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 4.
The FBI Washington Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from the FBI Las Vegas Field Office.
Senior Counsel Matthew A. Lamberti, Trial Attorney Michael Christin, and Acting Deputy Chief Christopher S. Merriam of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Oliva and Edward G. Veronda for the District of Nevada are prosecuting the case. The CCIPS Cybercrime Lab, the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada provided significant assistance.