The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Satellite Bahamas’ principals are seeking further protection from the Florida courts to block DIRECTV’s “simply irrelevant” efforts to obtain information on their bank and personal financial transactions.

Michael and Peter Garraway, and their US-based business, GEL Electronics, are seeking an Order from the south Florida district court to prevent the US satellite provider from obtaining records on accounts they hold with three US banks.

DIRECTV, according to court documents, has attempted to gather further evidence to support its allegations that Satellite Bahamas, and the Garraways, illegally ‘pirated’ its signal by serving subpoenas on Bank of America, Wells Fargo and TD Bank.

Following close behind their attempt to block, or delay, their need to respond to ‘discovery’ requests that DIRECTV has served upon them personally, the Garraways alleged that the subpoenas served on the banks were “premature”.

In a November 14, 2013, court filing they argued that DIRECTV was effectively behaving as if it had already won its case and obtained a judgment, ignoring the fact that the Garraways and their companies had filed a motion to dismiss the entire complaint.

Stating that DIRECTV subpoenaed the three banks on November 1, the Garraways alleged that the documents served “do not seek records relating to transfers or funds involving DIRECTV or relating to any of the allegations in the complaint but, rather, all bank records for certain listed accounts as well as for all accounts held by defendants (whether such records relate to DIRECTV or not), including all checks, deposit slips, electronic funds transfers, wire transfers, correspondence, and bank statements.

“Stated differently, the bank subpoenas seek discovery that is in aid of execution and delves into defendants’ private financial records.”

The Garraways thus urged the south Florida court to either entirely block the bank subpoenas, or limit their scope to transactions only involving DIRECTV.

“The requests made by DIRECTV in the bank subpoenas are, in very simple terms, discovery in aid of execution, which is premature at this juncture,” the Garraways alleged.

“DIRECTV’s requests for all bank records relating to certain accounts held by the defendants are simply irrelevant and, even if deemed relevant in some limited respect - to identify transfers relating to any of the allegations in this case - clearly exceed the reasonable limits of discovery in terms of both scope and burden.

“Defendants submit that plaintiff should be restricted from obtaining the wholesale financial discovery sought under the bank subpoenas. To the extent that DIRECTV is allowed to seek documents in connection with the bank subpoenas, defendants respectfully request that this court issue a protective order limiting such discovery to financial records relating to DIRECTV.”

The filing is the latest salvo in a case in which the Garraways, and their Top-of-the-Hill, Mackey Street-based business are defending themselves against DIRECTV’s claims that they earned millions of dollars through the unauthorised downloading of its signal, then reselling it to their Bahamas-based customers.

DIRECTV is also demanding that they turn over documents naming all their Bahamas-based customers, including subscribers’ names and addresses, plus copies of customer contracts.

Import permits, and tariff rates, relating to the importation of DIRECTV’s satellite equipment to the Bahamas are also included among the 28 different document requests submitted directly to Satellite Bahamas and its advisers.

Tribune Business revealed previously how DIRECTV is alleging that Satellite Bahamas received almost $8.8 million in revenues through its allegedly fraudulent scheme to ‘pirate’ the US provider’s signal.

And it claimed that efforts by the Bahamian satellite TV programming distributor, and the Garraways, to dismiss its lawsuit would merely “delay the day of reckoning”.

Providing arguments as to why Satellite Bahamas’ bid to dismiss its lawsuit should be rejected, DIRECTV described the size of its scheme as “nothing short of staggering”.

Its investigators alleged that “the volume of mail was so great”, in relation to account billings and the like, that one Florida mail facility ended up storing Michael Garraway’s mailings “in mail bins used by the US Postal Service”.

“The Garraway brothers and their companies created at least 621 fraudulent DIRECTV subscription accounts – each listing a false subscriber name and false service addresses in the United States,” DIRECTV alleged.

“Each account listed a service address in Florida or New York; 581 of the accounts also listed a billing address in Florida. Taking advantage of special rules that allow multiple satellite receivers to be activated on a single account, defendants obtained 5,803 satellite Receivers - including 539 High Definition Receivers and 2,010 Standard Receivers that were available only by lease from DIRECTV – and activated those receivers for programming service on the fraudulent accounts they created,” it added.