Boston -- A year and a day: That was the prison sentence
for a pirate who was discovered still selling "black-box" kits while under an
injunction to cease his activities.
Joseph Lallier, 50, of Attleboro, Mass., received the
sentence this month in U.S. District Court in Boston, after Judge Joseph Tauro found him
guilty of conspiracy to sell kits used by purchasers to unlawfully obtain cable signals.
Lallier was also convicted of filing false income-tax
statements that omitted his income from the piracy business. The sentence relates to his
activities from 1992 through 1995.
A statement issued by U.S. Attorney Donald Stern after the
sentencing heartened operators. "Stealing cable and helping others to steal cable
drives up costs, making victims of honest subscribers," the prosecutor said.
Lallier and an associate, Thomas Grattan, were before the
court previously in 1991. At that time, Judge William Young enjoined the two men; their
company, Northeast Electronic Inc.; and associated individuals from selling black boxes
and the kits to make them.
Grattan, too, got a year-and-a-day prison term in a
separate hearing by Young.
Special agents of the Internal Revenue Service's
criminal-investigation division and the FBI conducted the investigation into
Lallier's and Grattan's activities.
