The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Satellite Bahamas has asked the US courts to give it more time to respond to DIRECTV’s document discovery demands, due to the fact it is located in a foreign country and the delays caused by the Thanksgiving holiday.

Asking to be given until December 6, the Top-of-the-Hill, Mackey Street-based business argued that there was “good cause” to request the extension - something DIRECTV has not opposed, but with conditions.

“Satellite Bahamas respectfully submits that more time is required to finalise responses to the interrogatories, due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, attorneys’ related travel arrangements and ongoing efforts to co-ordinate defendants’ responses,” the Bahamian satellite provider said.

It made the request of the US south Florida district court after its bid to ‘stay’ the discovery, until its motion to dismiss the DIRECTV lawsuit, was heard.

Tribune Business previously revealed how the US satellite provider had filed a lawsuit against the company, and its principals Peter and Michael Garraway, alleging that they had earned at least $8.8 million in revenues from the unauthorised, or ‘pirated’, use of its signals.

DIRECTV described the size of the scheme as “nothing short of staggering”, and 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 satellite programmer alleged that Satellite Bahamas created hundreds of fraudulent subscription accounts to mask the unauthorised use of its signal outside the Bahamas.

“The scope of defendants’ fraudulent scheme is nothing short of staggering,” DIRECTV alleged.

“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.

“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,” DIRECTV added.

In its latest salvo, DIRECTV, in a November 22 filing, sought to oppose a protective order sought by Peter and Michael Garraway, arguing that the court order sought by the duo to prevent three US banks disclosing details on their financial dealings would “deprive” it of “evidence necessary to move the case forward”.

DIRECTV had issued subpoenas on Bank of America, Wells Fargo and TD Bank but, in what appears to be at least a temporary success for the Garraways, the south Florida district court ordered that the banks be told not to hand over the requested documents “until further notice”.

In a bid to remove this setback, DIRECTV alleged in its latest filing: “Defendants seek to shield from discovery evidence that is directly relevant to DIRECTV’s claims against them for fraudulent acquisition and re-sale of DIRECTV satellite television programming and equipment.

“More immediately, by filing their Protective Order motion, defendants are attempting to hide or delay the disclosure of evidence that goes to the heart of their denial of personal jurisdiction in [the motion] pending before this court.

“The relief sought by defendants’ motion – effectively quashing subpoenas directed to certain banks – would needlessly delay resolution of this litigation, and will deprive the court and DIRECTV of evidence necessary to move this case forward in accordance with the court’s scheduling order.”