The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

DIRECTV has renewed its demands for the US courts to impose a lien over $224,000 worth of assets owned by one of Satellite Bahamas’ principals, alleging that he has not denied ‘pirating’ its programming signals.

The US satellite TV distributor, in an October 7 court filing, reiterated its call for a ‘prejudgment writ of attachment’ to be placed on Michael Garraway’s Florida-based assets, describing his and Satellite Bahamas’ attempts to dismiss its action as “wrong” and “misplaced”.

Michael Garraway and his brother, Peter, who are both Bahamian citizens, and several of their companies – including Satellite Bahamas – are attempting to get the DIRECTV lawsuit against them dismissed on technical grounds. They are arguing that the south Florida district court - and US federal laws - have no standing in the Bahamas.

A similar argument was invoked by Mr Garraway as to why DIRECTV’s bid for a lien against his assets should be rejected, but the US satellite programming provider responded by noting that he did not oppose “the merits” of its action.

“Nor does Garraway attempt to controvert the evidence submitted by DIRECTV demonstrating that he, a former authorized dealer of DIRECTV satellite television services, was responsible for stealing $224,335 in leased satellite receivers and commission, and payments from DIRECTV,” the satellite provider alleged.

“Garraway does not contest DIRECTV’s legal right to an attachment or the sufficiency of the evidence submitted by DIRECTV in support of that attachment, because he has no legitimate grounds to do so.”

DIRECTV alleged that Michael Garraway’s attempt to dismiss the lien motion, which targets his ownership interest in a company called National Solar Power Partners, was “a cynical mistreatment” of its complaint and based upon a “self-serving and flawed reading” of it.

In its original lawsuit, previously revealed by Tribune Business, DIRECTV had alleged there was “overwhelming evidence” that Satellite Bahamas and the Garraways had defrauded it by pirating its programming and equipment to service over 5,800 local accounts.

The largest US satellite broadcaster, in documents filed in the south Florida district in July, alleged that they had used an elaborate scheme to “illegally obtain” its TV signal.

The complaint alleged that the Garraways and their business, which is based at Top-of-the-Hill on Mackey Street, employed false customer and billing addresses to conceal the fact they were offering Bahamas-based clients DIRECTV’s programming.

The US satellite TV distributor, which supplies programming to more than 20 million US residential and business customers, alleged that Satellite Bahamas’ use of its signal - which is supposed to be confined to the US only - was “unauthorised”.

To support its latest lien argument, DIRECTV alleged in its October 7 filing that Michael Garraway had breached the Federal Communications Act.

It claimed: “Garraway, a former authorized dealer of DIRECTV equipment and services, created no less than 621 fraudulent subscriber accounts and then used those accounts to activate 5,803 satellite receivers for DIRECTV television service for persons who were not subscribers to DIRECTV, and were not eligible to receive its services.

“Garraway makes no attempt to controvert that evidence; indeed, he admitted that was what he was doing….. The record before this court also establishes that Garraway converted thousands of satellite receivers, available only by lease from DIRECTV, to his use and the use of his customers in the Bahamas.

“Garraway does not dispute that the leased receivers have not been returned to DIRECTV despite the company’s demand for same. The factual record before this court shows that Garraway has asserted dominion over DIRECTV’s ownership interest and is therefore liable to DIRECTV for conversion.”

Detailing that factual record, DIRECTV’s latest lien motion alleged: “As alleged in DIRECTV’s complaint, the essential first step of Garraway’s scheme with his brother, defendant Peter Garraway, was to procure fraudulent subscription accounts, which they used to obtain DIRECTV satellite receiving equipment and services. Florida was the hub of that activity.

“The majority of the 621 fraudulent subscription accounts defendants procured listed false service addresses in Florida. Defendants contacted DIRECTV customer service representatives in Florida to procure and manage the Florida-based accounts.

“Defendants used private mail forwarding facilities in Florida to receive invoices and other billing information for DIRECTV services on the fraudulent accounts,” DIRECTV alleged…. “ DIRECTV has produced to Garraway and the Court ample additional evidence of Garraway’s Florida-based activities:

“Most of defendants’ fraudulent accounts used one of five common billing addresses in Florida. Garraway personally picked up DIRECTV invoices sent to a private mailbox service in Lauderhill, Florida, every two weeks.

“The allegations and evidence described above easily establish personal jurisdiction over Garraway under the business venture and tortuous act prongs of the Florida long-arm statute. First, Garraway plainly engaged in a ‘business enterprise’ in Florida to procure satellite receiving equipment to export to the Bahamas.

“As part of that business, Garraway and his co-defendants engaged in hundreds of transactions in Florida, including the creation of fraudulent accounts and procurement of DIRECTV equipment. “

In attempting to dismiss the original lawsuit, the Garraways and their companies alleged that, apart from failing to provide specifics that met US federal law requirements, DIRECTV’s action also “improperly seeks to invoke federal statutes that do not apply to extraterritorial acts”.

And they argued that they and their businesses, two of which - Satellite Bahamas and Garraway Enterprises - are domiciled in the Bahamas, did not have enough contact with the US and Florida to give the court jurisdiction over them.

“DIRECTV’s complaint in this proceeding, in very simple terms, requests that this court extend its jurisdictional reach to foreign entities and individuals, whose alleged improper conduct (which is identified only in general terms in the complaint) relates to the purported violation of various federal laws in the foreign jurisdiction of the Bahamas,” Satellite Bahamas and the Garraways argued.