5 Nevada men sentenced to prison for running Jetflicks pirated content site

A federal jury slapped five men from Nevada with varying sentences for their roles in running Jetflicks, one of the largest illegal TV streaming services to be taken down by law enforcement. 

The five went through a 14-day trial in June 2024, which the Justice Department said was “the largest internet piracy case… ever to go to trial as well as the first illegal streaming case ever to go to trial.” On Tuesday, the DOJ said a federal jury had sentenced 42-year-old Kristopher Lee Dallmann to seven years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, money laundering and other violations.

The other four men were also hit with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement charges and will spend differing times in prison. Peter H. Huber, 67, will spend 18 months in prison while Jared Edward Jaurequi, 44, got 180 days of home confinement. 

Felipe Garcia, 43, will get three years probation and 49 days in prison while Douglas M. Courson, 65, will get three years probation with 48 days in prison. All of the men lived in Las Vegas.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti said the site “generated millions of dollars in criminal profits, and hurt thousands of U.S. companies and individuals who owned the copyrights to these shows but never received a penny in compensation from Jetflicks.”

Prosecutors said Dallmann “reaped millions of dollars in profit” and estimated the value of the copyright infringement in the case at $37.5 million. 

“By building and running one of the largest unauthorized streaming services in the U.S., these individuals not only stole from content creators and legitimate streaming services, they undermined the integrity of our economy and the rule of law," said FBI Assistant Director Jose Perez.

The five men used automated software to constantly scour the internet for content they could host — downloading, processing and storing the content before making it available to thousands of paid subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. 

In many cases episodes were delivered just one day after they aired or became available on legitimate streaming sites. 

The people convicted served in a variety of roles, coding, programming and designing the site while also providing technical assistance and customer support. 

The Justice Department originally indicted eight men for Jetflicks but secured a plea agreement with Darryl Polo — who also ran an illegal streaming site called iStreamItAll — that resulted in nearly five years in prison. Luis Villarino also previously pleaded guilty and served 12 months.  

Those two were sentenced in 2021 before the case was moved to Nevada. One other man, Yoany Vaillant, was tried separately from the five Las Vegas men and was convicted last November. He will be sentenced on September 4. 

The Justice Department and European law enforcement agencies have increased their targeting of piracy sites on the internet. Last week, the FBI took down multiple websites used by gamers to illegally download popular titles for platforms like Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Two brothers were indicted in November for running illegal sports streaming site 247TVStream. The operator behind another illegal sports streaming site, HeHeStreams, was charged in 2021 while German officials took down one of the most popular illegal movie streaming sites last year.