US YouTube star sentenced to 5.5 years in jail, ordered to forfeit US$30mil

Carrasquillo, 36, apologised to his family, his employees, and the cable companies he’d cheated through his business, which illegally sold content hijacked from cable boxes to thousands of online subscribers paying fees as low as US$15 a month. — Screengrab from YouTube/@omiinahellcatverified

PHILADELPHIA: A YouTube star who built a sizable following with slickly produced videos flaunting his fleet of luxury and sports cars, collection of diamond-encrusted bling, and his spacious Swedesboro, New Jersey, home will be forced to give up nearly all of it after he was sentenced on March 7 to 5 1/2 years in prison for the illegal business that allowed him to amass those trappings of success.

Bill Omar Carrasquillo – better known to his more than 800,000 online followers as “Omi in a Hellcat” – pleaded guilty last year to running one of the most brazen and successful cable TV piracy schemes ever prosecuted by the US government.