The feds arrested popular YouTuber Omi in a Hellcat on Tuesday, September 21, but he maintains the FBI has it all wrong.
The social media influencer, whose government name is Bill Omar Carrasquillo, maintains that he is innocent in a federal piracy case they have been trying to pin on him for years.
According to FoxNews, government agents are zeroing in on his Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Gears Reloaded platform.
This tool allows people to stream content meant for TV over the internet without paying for traditional formats such as satellite, cable services.
Omi knows his way around content distribution. He already has 791,000 YouTube subscribers and averages between 300 and 500,000 views per video.
So figuring out a means to be out here hi-tech bootlegging is not hard for this Master of Media.
His social media talents aside, the Feds have evidence to support this claim after busting him in 2019.
Now considered one of the largest illegal TV pirating cases in the country, the nation’s top law enforcement agents raided his New Jersey home to find numerous luxury vehicles and millions of dollars directly connected to his alleged piracy activities.
They also seized about $35 million in assets.
As the investigation continues, it looks crazy for Omi. Especially since, as Torrent Freak reports, Congress passed the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of 2020 bill, which will grant law enforcement agencies the right to prosecute pirate streaming services as a felony.
But Omar contends that while he might not be innocent, he didn’t do anything wrong.
“I don’t think I ever did anything wrong. Obviously, I was running businesses wide open in the public. Now, we are going to have our day in court,” Omi said.
Omi further believes that saying that he doesn’t see himself as “completely innocent” and shares that what he was doing in the “grey area” and that he simply exploited what he thought was a “loophole.”
He also feels a little targeted and stated, “There is other colleagues in the same business I was in and they never got in trouble with the FBI.”
Omi in a Hellcat is facing 514 years in prison.
