Fugitive media pirate gets maximum jail sentence

The final member of a gang involved in large-scale CD and DVD piracy has been jailed for five years in a US court and fined almost $71,000.

Mamadou Aliou Simakha was one of 13 individuals charged by a federal grand jury in 2009 in connection with selling pirated CDs and DVDs which, if legitimate, would have been worth more than $769,000. He pleaded guilty on March 10, 2010, to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, to traffic in counterfeit goods, and counterfeit labels.

Simakha subsequently fled the country, however, only to be rearrested a year later in Morocco and extradited back to the US towards the end of last year. In the interim, seven other defendants were sentenced in 2011 to prison terms ranging from probation to five years.

"Simakha admitted his part as a high volume seller in a conspiracy to produce and traffic millions of pirated music CDs and DVDs which was a leading supplier for the southeastern US," said US Attorney John Horn. "His decision to flee the country garnered him the statutory maximum sentence he deserves for his many years as a disc counterfeiter and international fugitive."

At the 2010 plea hearing, Simakha admitted that two co-conspirators supplied him with blank CDs and DVDs and he burned counterfeit copies of music and movies onto the CDs and DVDs along with placing counterfeit artwork onto the CDs and DVDs. Simakha also admitted that he was involved in a conspiracy to then sell copies of the pirated works to others.