Feds Say $30 Million Fraud Scheme Paid For YouTuber’s Fleet Of Foreign Cars & Diamond Jewelry

Faking it til’ you make it isn’t all the time one of the simplest ways to go, chile. A preferred YouTuber identified for his flashy way of life is some SERIOUS fed time after authorities accused him of working a multi-million greenback scheme involving illegally promoting copyrighted movies.

On YouTube, he is called ‘Omi in a Hellcat’ and parades himself as a enterprise mogul who all the time has one thing a lil’ flashy on his neck or wrist. This week, federal prosecutors mentioned they charged Omi and two of his associates with promoting copyrighted video content material to hundreds of subscribers on Omi’s personal on-line service, in response to the New York Times.

The feds allege the scheme made Omi and his associates greater than $30 million from March 2016 till November 2019. Prosecutors say Omi, who’s from New Jersey, used the cash to purchase homes and dozens of automobiles, together with one he would repeatedly flaunt on his YouTube channel.

If convicted of his prices, Omi might face life in jail on conspiracy prices, violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, copy of protected work, entry machine fraud, making false statements to a financial institution, and cash laundering. 

Omi’s lawyer says his shopper denies the fees, although it feels like Omi knew this was coming.

In June, he posted a video titled, “THE FBI IS BACK!!!” by which he filmed himself rocking a big diamond-encrusted pendant that flashed his model’s identify, Reloaded. In the video, he warned his 790,000 subscribers that the FBI had seized greater than 30 of his automobiles and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from his checking account. 

He additionally informed his followers that he could be indicted on prices that might embody cash laundering in connection to the alleged scheme. “I’ve kind of been depressed about it,” he confessed.

In an indictment, prosecutors mentioned Omi and his crew should forfeit practically $35 million in belongings, together with greater than 50 automobiles and bikes and dozens of properties in Philadelphia.

“You can’t just go and monetize someone else’s copyrighted content with impunity,” mentioned Bradley S. Benavides, the performing particular agent in cost. “That’s the whole point of securing a copyright.”

Donte Mills, Omi’s lawyer, says his shopper is being branded as a prison when he was actually simply working a profitable enterprise.

“[Omi] tapped into a brand-new, unregulated industry and was very successful,” Mills mentioned in a press release. “Most people are called pioneers when they do that; Omar is called a criminal. The government assumes my client was not smart enough to do this legally because of his background. He is, and we will prove that.”

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