Man Pleads Guilty to Selling and Distributing Illegal Satellite TV Cards
Emily M. Sweeney, United States Attorney for the Northern District of
Ohio, announced that on October 1, 2001, Joel L. Butler, age 40, of 9175
Township Road 79, Millersburg, Ohio, entered a guilty plea to a one count
indictment which charged him with selling and distributing electronic
devices primarily used for unauthorized decryption of direct-to-home satellite
television services, in violation of Title 47, United States Code, Section
605(e)(4).
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio, on
August 7, 2001, charged that between on or about June 1, 1997, and on
or about February 26, 2001, in the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern
Division, Joel L. Butler sold and distributed to various individual customers,
at least 50 "hacked" and "unlooped" DirecTV DSS satellite
access cards, which Butler had fraudulently altered and modified for the
express purpose of illegally receiving and decrypting DirecTV DSS satellite
television programming, including pay-per-view programs and premium channels
such as HBO, Showtime and Cinemax, without paying the subscription fees
normally associated with such programming. According to documents filed
with the Court, the defendant admitted causing DirecTV to suffer loss
revenue in the approximate amount of $100,000 as a result of the conduct
charged in the indictment.
Butler is scheduled to be sentenced on December 10, 2001, by U.S. District
Judge Donald C. Nugent, following the completion of a Presentence Investigation
by the U.S. Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Kern,
following an investigation by the Mansfield and Canton Offices of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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