Bill Omar Carrasquillo, a popular YouTube star who has 791,000 subscribers, believes that he's found a 'loophole' that allows him to run his pirate streaming service.
- September 25, 2021
AceShowbiz - Omi in a Hellcat has spoken up after he was arrested in federal piracy case. The popular YouTube star faces 514 years in prison as he is accused by federal authorities of heading a massive digital piracy scheme.
On Thursday, September 23, the New Jersey resident spoke to local news channel FOX 29 in front of his house. The YouTube personality, who has 791,000 subscribers on his channel, maintained that he did nothing wrong.
"I don't think I ever did anything wrong," said Omi, whose real name is Bill Omar Carrasquillo. "Obviously, I was running businesses wide open in the public. Now, we are going to have our day in court."
When asked if he was "completely innocent," Omi admitted, "Not completely innocent would be a false statement. Ignorance is no excuse for the law." As he expects to face charges on tax evasion related to his activities and an arrest sooner or later, he blamed his accountants and tax aids for getting him in trouble.
As for the illegal TV pirating case, Omi stated, "They said that everything I'd done was criminally. And back again, we're back to flourishing again with other business ventures, which means that I've always done something right."
The 35-year-old believes that his activities fell into a "grey area" in the law, in which he exploited a "loophole." He argued, "I just feel like I found a loophole, I ran through it and I did great."
Claiming that he was targeted, he said, "There is other colleagues in the same business I was in and they never got in trouble with the FBI. They're getting sued by DirecTV and the FBI never had any interest in them. How come my colleagues get to run of with two, three-hundred million and I was the only one targeted?"
Omi was arrested on Tuesday in a $30 million digital piracy fraud scheme. He has run a pirate service called Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Gears Reloaded, which allowed a user to stream TV content over the internet instead of through traditional formats such as satellite or cableheading a massive digital piracy scheme.
During a raid in 2019, Omi and his two associates were forced to forfeit "nearly $35 million in assets, including over 50 cars and motorcycles, as well as dozens of properties in Philadelphia." One neighbor estimated that agents confiscated "probably 30" cars and referred to Omi's home as "the dealership" for the number of vehicles parked outside.
