San Diego County, California

October 28, 2008

The Motion Picture Association was made aware of an individual that resides in La Mesa, California who conducts modifications of video game consoles. This individual would advertise on sites such as craigslist.com. The suspect would offer to modify a video game console and load hundreds of movies and video games in the Xbox for a price of $200 per modification.

Rosario Investigations, Inc. conducted an investigation on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The investigation involved sending an undercover operative to visit the subject of this investigation. The undercover operative provided the subject an Xbox and a 500 GB hard drive. In return, the subject gave the undercover operative the hard drive filled with over 200 movies, over 90 newer retail video games and several hundred vintage video games.

The subject provided the undercover operative with movie titles that were still playing in theatres at the time of the investigation. Theatrical release movie titles included; The Dark Knight, Hancock, and Get Smart. Additionally, there were many newer popular video game titles such as, Madden 2009 and the Tony Hawk’s video game collection.

The preliminary investigation was turned over to the Computer and Technology Crime High Tech Response Team (CATCH). Detective Dave Hendron verified the information provided to him by Rosario Investigation and completed the investigation which resulted in obtaining a search warrant to search the subject’s residence.

On October 28, 2008, the CATCH Team executed a search warrant at the subject’s residence which resulted in collecting an enormous amount of evidence that ties the subject to movie and video game piracy. The subject was arrested on felony charges for violation of California Penal Code 350(a). The subject was booked at San Diego County Jail and initially held on $50,000 bail. The subject may face up to 5 years in state prison if found guilty.

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Contact:

Tony Rosario

tony@rosarioinvestigations.com

(800) 203-7192