The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) wanted to publicly congratulate our National Police on the occasion of an operation that resulted in the arrest of four people responsible for operating a pirated IPTV service that gave access to more than 2,600 Internet channels. illegal television.
This public recognition is an unprecedented nod from the world’s leading anti-piracy organization.
National Police closed a pirate IPTV
The specific operation for which the ACE congratulates the National Police is that against the pirate IPTV called TV Choice Spain, which provided service to more than 500,000 people throughout Europe. This operation, coordinated with Europol and ACE itself, was carried out on October 19.
During the intervention, homes of those responsible were searched in Marbella (Málaga), four people were arrested, bank accounts with more than 3 million euros were frozen, bank accounts abroad were detected and computer equipment was seized, data of more than 95 resellers located in Spain, the United Kingdom, Malta, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece and Tesla and Range Rover vehicles valued at 180,000 euros.
In addition, and what is more important in this fight against piracy, nine pirated IPTV servers were closed. “The first police investigation revealed the existence of an organization that, since 2012, sold and distributed massively and fraudulently, through different companies, audiovisual content from different subscription television platforms. Specifically, they were offering their clients different subscription packages made up of more than 2,600 television channels and 23,000 movies and series,” police sources said.
The ACE appreciates the police effort
In an unprecedented gesture, at least within our borders, the ACE wanted to thank the police action to put an end to this pirated content that spread through local resellers. The suspects operated through multiple entities, including “Great TV Choice”, “Best TV Choice” and “TV Choice Spain” and even their illegal service was promoted through real estate agencies, mainly in the coastal areas of the country.
“ACE is proud to support the effective actions taken by the Spanish National Police and Europol against this illegal IPTV piracy network. We are honored to continue our work with law enforcement agencies and other partners around the world in our crucial fight to combat large-scale piracy operations and protect the creative marketplace,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and Director of ACE.
The four suspects also laundered, according to the police, about 3 million euros a year, through the acquisition of real estate and personal property in Malaga and the sending of funds through Spanish companies to bank accounts located in tax havens.
