Arrest of Omi in a Hellcat#Background
{{Short description|Arrest of an American YouTuber}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox YouTube personality
| name = Omi in a Hellcat
| birth_name = Bill Omar Carrasquillo
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1986|9|6}}
| channel_handle = omiinahellcat
| channel_display_name = OMI IN A HELLCAT
| subscribers = 819,000
| views = 65 million
| stats_update = December 2023
}}
Bill Omar Carrasquillo (born September 6, 1986), known professionally as Omi in a Hellcat (stylized in all caps), is an American YouTuber who was sentenced to five and a half years of prison and fined {{US$|30,000,000|link=yes}}{{Cite web |last1=Madej |first1=Patricia |last2=Roebuck |first2=Jeremy |date=March 8, 2023 |title=What to know about the cable piracy case against popular YouTuber 'Omi in a Hellcat' |url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/omi-in-a-hellcat-case-jail-sentence-20230308.html |access-date=October 13, 2023 |website=The Philadelphia Inquirer |language=en |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014011705/https://www.inquirer.com/news/omi-in-a-hellcat-case-jail-sentence-20230308.html |url-status=live }} on charges of conspiracy, copyright infringement, fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion over a cable television piracy scheme.{{Cite web |last=St. Jawnson |first=Kershaw |date=March 15, 2023 |title=Omi In A Hell Cat Gets Five Years In Prison And Gives Up $30M In Assets To Feds |url=https://allhiphop.com/news/omi-in-a-hell-cat-gets-five-years-in-prison-and-gives-up-30m-in-assets-to-feds/ |access-date=October 13, 2023 |website=AllHipHop |language=en-US |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014011706/https://allhiphop.com/news/omi-in-a-hell-cat-gets-five-years-in-prison-and-gives-up-30m-in-assets-to-feds/ |url-status=live }}
Background
{{Redirect-distinguish|Jesse Gonzales|Jesse González}}
Bill Omar Carrasquillo was born to Julio Carrasquillo and Soledad Diaz on September 6, 1986.{{cite news |title=Bill Omar speaks on importance of authentic content for success as Youtuber |url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/entertainment/television/191019/bill-omar-speaks-on-importance-of-authentic-content-for-success-as-yo.html |access-date=November 10, 2023 |work=Deccan Chronicle |date=October 19, 2019 |archive-date=November 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231110012736/https://www.deccanchronicle.com/entertainment/television/191019/bill-omar-speaks-on-importance-of-authentic-content-for-success-as-yo.html |url-status=live }} He was raised in North Philadelphia. His mother, Soledad, died of a drug overdose while he was a child. His father, Julio, was a drug dealer who taught him to cook crack cocaine at the age of 12. He went between the care of relatives, foster parents, and his father. He said he was once sent to a mental health institution for his guardian to gain access to prescription narcotics to sell. He became a drug dealer as a teenager and continued selling drugs until his late 20s.
After he gave up drug dealing, he started a business in 2016 with partners Jesse Gonzales from California and Michael Barone from New York which offered subscribers content from Comcast, Verizon FiOS, DirecTV, and HBO for as low as {{US$|15|link=yes}} a month. According to federal authorities, they bought encoders from China which removed copyright protections from legitimate cable subscriptions, then used these to stream the content online.{{Cite web |last=DeMarco |first=Jerry |date=September 23, 2021 |title=Feds Bust NJ YouTuber In Multi-Million-Dollar TV Pirating Ring |url=https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/gloucester/news/feds-bust-nj-youtuber-in-multi-million-dollar-tv-pirating-ring/816890/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014011705/https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/gloucester/news/feds-bust-nj-youtuber-in-multi-million-dollar-tv-pirating-ring/816890/ |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |access-date=October 14, 2023 |website=Gloucester Daily Voice |language=en}} Before being shut down in 2019, the service had 100,000 subscribers and generated {{US$|34000000}} in revenue.
He created a YouTube channel named Omi in a Hellcat (stylized in all caps). The channel features videos showing off his jewelry, his home in Swedesboro, New Jersey (which was formerly owned by professional baseball player Jimmy Rollins),{{Cite web |date=November 28, 2019 |title=FBI raids millionaire YouTuber's Swedesboro home, seizes belongings |url=https://www.fox29.com/news/fbi-raids-millionaire-youtubers-swedesboro-home-seizes-belongings |access-date=October 14, 2023 |website=FOX 29 Philadelphia |language=en-US |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014011705/https://www.fox29.com/news/fbi-raids-millionaire-youtubers-swedesboro-home-seizes-belongings |url-status=live }} and his collection of 57 automobiles. His collection included three Dodge Hellcats and four Lamborghinis, including a Power Rangers-themed one.{{Cite web |last=Sottile |first=Zoe |date=October 8, 2023 |title=US Marshals to auction off multimillion dollar car collection seized from YouTuber 'Omi in a Hellcat' |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/08/us/omi-in-a-hellcat-car-auction-trnd/index.html |access-date=October 20, 2023 |website=CNN |language=en |archive-date=October 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231013220633/https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/08/us/omi-in-a-hellcat-car-auction-trnd/index.html |url-status=live }} {{As of|December 2023}}, the channel had 819,000 subscribers and 65 million views.
Arrest
Carrasquillo's home was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the morning of November 27, 2019, seizing his cars, jewelry, computers, SD cards, televisions and the money in his bank account. He was then indicted by the FBI on September 21, 2021, on 62 counts, including 19 counts of public performance of a protected work and six counts of wire fraud. Facing 514 years in federal prison, he initially maintained his innocence:
{{quote|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[...]I found a loophole, I ran through it and I did great. There is{{sic}} other colleagues in the same business I was in and they never got in trouble with the FBI[...]{{Cite web |last=O'Connell |first=Chris |date=September 22, 2021 |title=YouTuber 'Omi in a Hellcat' speaks out after arrest in federal piracy case |url=https://www.fox29.com/news/youtuber-omi-in-a-hellcat-speaks-out-after-arrest-in-federal-piracy-case |access-date=October 13, 2023 |website=FOX 29 Philadelphia |language=en-US |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014011705/https://www.fox29.com/news/youtuber-omi-in-a-hellcat-speaks-out-after-arrest-in-federal-piracy-case |url-status=live }}|Omi in a Hellcat (2021)}}
He pled guilty in February 2022{{Cite web |last=Roebuck |first=Jeremy |date=February 15, 2022 |title=Local YouTube star pleads guilty in large-scale cable piracy case |url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/omi-in-a-hellcat-pleads-guilty-bill-omar-carrasquillo-prison-gears-tv-reloaded-iptv-20220215.html |access-date=October 14, 2023 |website=The Philadelphia Inquirer |language=en |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014134542/https://www.inquirer.com/news/omi-in-a-hellcat-pleads-guilty-bill-omar-carrasquillo-prison-gears-tv-reloaded-iptv-20220215.html |url-status=live }} and was sentenced to five and a half years of prison and fined {{US$|30000000|link=yes}} on March 8, 2023 on charges of conspiracy, copyright infringement, fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. His cars were auctioned off by United States Marshals at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore on October 13{{Cite web |date=October 13, 2023 |title=Convicted YouTube star's seized car collection being auctioned off at B&O Railroad Museum |url=https://www.wmar2news.com/local/convicted-youtube-stars-seized-car-collection-being-auctioned-off-at-b-o-railroad-museum |access-date=October 14, 2023 |website=WMAR 2 News Baltimore |language=en |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014011705/https://www.wmar2news.com/local/convicted-youtube-stars-seized-car-collection-being-auctioned-off-at-b-o-railroad-museum |url-status=live }} and his jewelry auctioned online, with the auction ending October 24.{{Cite web |date=October 10, 2023 |title=US Marshals to auction off Eagles Super Bowl ring, luxury cars seized from South Jersey YouTuber |url=https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-super-bowl-ring-auction-omi-in-a-hellcat-youtuber-cars-jewelry/ |access-date=October 14, 2023 |website=PhillyVoice |language=english |archive-date=October 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014011705/https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-super-bowl-ring-auction-omi-in-a-hellcat-youtuber-cars-jewelry/ |url-status=live }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://static.fox29.com/www.fox29.com/content/uploads/2021/09/USA-V-CARRASQUILLO-OMI-IN-A-HELLCAT.pdf Carrasquillo's indictment]
Category:2016 crimes in the United States
Category:2017 crimes in the United States
Category:2018 crimes in the United States
Category:2019 crimes in the United States
Category:September 2019 in the United States
Category:2020 crimes in the United States
Category:2021 crimes in the United States