When the smoke cleared last week, four persons had pleaded guilty to stealing TV-signals, and another six had been formally charged with felonies. At the Computer Crimes Section of the DOJ, Trial Attorney Richard Downing said that Internet-based crimes are a growing area of law enforcement today, and it s extremely challenging. There s a whole new world out there, but we re working very hard to make sure that federal law enforcement is prepared to keep up with electronic crime. We can t stop every sale on the street. But we do think this operation will have an impact.
People take notice, when they see that criminal charges have been filed.
At the corporate headquarters of DirecTV in El Segundo, Calif., Communications Manager Robert Mercer was even more upbeat about the sting. We re delighted with the way this project turned out. We think the federal sting sends a very strong message to those who would steal our signals. We re extremely pleased with the cooperation we got from the federal government on this thing. The information, data, and statements contained in the federal web pages listed by FedBuzz do not imply endorsement or recommendation by FedBuzz or any of its affiliates.