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Date: 12-16-2019

Case Style:

United States of America v. Darryl Julius Polo, aka djppimp, and Luis Angel Villarino

Case Number: 1:19-cr-00253-TSE

Judge: T.S. Ellis III

Court: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Henrico County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: Matthew A. Lamberti and Alexander P. Berrang

Defendant's Attorney:


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Description: Richmond, VA - The United States of America charged Darryl Julius Polo, aka djppimp, and Luis Angel Villarino with criminal copyright infringement and money laundering.

A resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, pleaded guilty to multiple criminal copyright and money laundering charges related to his running of iStreamItAll, one of the biggest illegal television show and movie streaming services in the United States, and to his working as a computer programmer with co-defendants to help build Jetflicks, a similarly large illegal television show streaming service. A second defendant, who also resides in Las Vegas, pleaded guilty in the same court to a criminal copyright charge for his work as a computer programmer for Jetflicks.

Darryl Julius Polo, aka djppimp, 36, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, one count of criminal copyright infringement by distributing a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, one count of copyright infringement by reproduction or distribution, one count of copyright infringement by public performance and one count of money laundering. In a separate proceeding today, co-defendant Luis Angel Villarino, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. Sentencing for both defendants will be before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia, with Polo’s on March 13, 2020, and Villarino’s on March 20, 2020.

According to Polo’s plea agreement, Polo ran a site called iStreamItAll (ISIA), an online, subscription-based service headquartered in Las Vegas that permitted users to stream and download copyrighted television programs and movies without the permission of the relevant copyright owners. Polo admitted that he reproduced tens of thousands of copyrighted television episodes and movies without authorization, and streamed and distributed the infringing programs to thousands of paid subscribers located throughout the U.S. Specifically, Polo admitted that ISIA offered more than 118,479 different television episodes and 10,980 individual movies. In fact, according to the plea agreement, ISIA had more content than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime, and Polo sent out emails to potential subscribers highlighting ISIA’s huge catalog of works and urging them to cancel those licensed services and subscribe to ISIA instead.

According to Polo’s plea agreement, Polo obtained infringing television programs and movies from pirate sites around the world—including some of the globe’s biggest torrent and Usenet NZB sites specializing in infringing content—using various automated computer scripts that ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Specifically, Polo used sophisticated computer programming to scour global pirate sites for new illegal content; to download, process, and store these works; and then make the shows and movies available on servers in Canada to ISIA subscribers for streaming and downloading. Polo also admitted to running several other piracy services—including a Usenet NZB indexing site called SmackDownOnYou—and earning over $1 million from his piracy operations.

In addition, in Polo’s and Villarino’s plea agreements, they each admitted that they separately worked as computer programmers at Jetflicks, another 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. According to both plea agreements, Polo, Villarino and their co-conspirators at Jetflicks reproduced tens of thousands of copyrighted television episodes without authorization, and streamed and distributed the infringing programs to tens of thousands of paid subscribers located throughout the U.S.

Both Polo and Villarino also admitted that at Jetflicks they and their co-conspirators used automated software programs and other tools to locate, download, process and store illegal content, and then quickly make those television programs available on servers in the U.S. and Canada to Jetflicks subscribers for streaming and/or downloading.

In addition, as set forth in Polo’s and Villarino’s plea agreements, both Jetflicks and ISIA were not only available to subscribers over the internet but were specifically designed to work on many different types of devices, platforms and software including myriad varieties of computer operating systems, smartphones, tablets, smart televisions, video game consoles, digital media players, set-top boxes and web browsers.

The other defendants in the case are scheduled to go to trial starting on Feb. 3, 2020.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office conducted the investigation. The CCIPS Cybercrime Lab provided significant assistance.


Charges:


18:371, 18:506(a)(1)(A) & (C), and 18:2319(b)(3) & (d)(2) Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement FORFEITURE
(1)
17:506(a)(1)(A) and 106(1) and (3), and 18:2319(b)(3) and 2 Criminal Copyright Infringement by Reproduction or Distribution and Aiding and Abetting FORFEITURE
(2-3)
17:506(a)(1)(A) and 106(4) and (3), and 18:2319(b)(3) and 2 Criminal Copyright Infringement by Public Performance and Aiding and Abetting FORFEITURE
(4-5)
18:1956(a)(l)(A)(i) and (B)(i) and 2 Money Laundering and Aiding and Abetting FORFEITURE
(12-14)
18:1956(a)(3)(A) and (B) and 2 Money Laundering and Aiding and Abetting FORFEITURE
(15)

Outcome: 12/13/2019 136 Minute Entry for proceedings held before District Judge T. S. Ellis, III: Change of Plea Hearing as to Luis Angel Villarino held on 12/13/2019.
USA appeared through Alexander Berrang and Matthew Lamberti. Defendant appeared with counsel, David Benowitz.
Defendant withdrew not guilty plea and entered a guilty plea as to Count I of the Indictment 1 . Plea accepted. Defendant referred to PO for preparation of PSR and Sentencing set for 3/20/2020 at 09:00 AM in Alexandria Courtroom 900 before District Judge T. S. Ellis III.
Defendant cont'd on bond.
Court Reporter: P. Kaneshiro-Miller
(tran) (Entered: 12/13/2019)
12/13/2019 137 PLEA AGREEMENT as to Luis Angel Villarino (tran) (Entered: 12/13/2019)
12/13/2019 138 Statement of Facts as to Luis Angel Villarino (tran) (Entered: 12/13/2019)

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