Omi In A Hellcat Cable Piracy YouTuber Or A Genius Con Man?

Publish date: 2024-06-25

The Philadelphia YouTuber was sentenced to over five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $30 million in assets. 

The YouTuber’s birth name is Bill Omar Carrasquillo. On his channel, Bill shares slickly produced videos set to hip-hop beats. 

He proudly shows off his collection of diamond-encrusted bling, his spacious Swedesboro home, and a fleet of 57 high-end sports and luxury cars parked out front. 

Bill’s popularity can be estimated from the fact that his YouTube channel has attracted more than 1 million views and has garnered 800,000 followers.

Omi in a Hellcat was accused of tax fraud and copyright infringement last year. After almost a year of investigation, Bill has finally pleaded guilty to the charges imposed on him.

Court announced his punishment on Tuesday, March 7th. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison and ordered to forfeit $30 million in assets. 

Carrasquillo apologized to his family, employees, and the companies he scammed in court and said he “didn’t know the significance of this crime” until the FBI arrested him.

According to federal officials, Bill ran the most successful TV piracy schemes they have ever prosecuted. 

“Thirty million dollars is a lot of money [but] tangible objects aren’t everything,” U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III said. “You have a large following, and there may be people who think if you can get away with it, they can too.”

Some people gave Bill the benefit of the doubt when they learned about his troubled upbringing. 

Bill was raised as one of 38 children. His mother died of an overdose. He’s described his father as a drug kingpin who taught him how to cook crack cocaine at the tender age of 12. 

Carrasquillo bounced between the care of relatives, foster parents, and his father when he was out of jail.

Bill made a shocking revelation regarding one of his caretakers. At some point, he said that his guardian got him admitted into a mental health facility solely for access to prescription narcotics that he planned to sell. 

Carrasquillo was indicted in September 2021 for running a multimillion-dollar business known at various points as Gears TV and Gears Reloaded.

Through his business, he opened dozens of accounts with cable companies like Comcast and Verizon FiOS, hacked encrypted cable boxes, and then streamed and resold the copyrighted content. 

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