Gregory A. Cherwonik, Copyright Infringement, Virginia 2012

WASHINGTON – A third member of the Internet piracy group ‘IMAGiNE’ was sentenced today to 40 months in prison, and a fifth member of IMAGiNE pleaded guilty today for his role in the conspiracy, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge John P. Torres of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) in Washington, D.C.

Gregory A. Cherwonik, 53, of Canandaigua, N.Y., was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen in the Eastern District of Virginia. In addition to his prison term, Cherwonik was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution. Cherwonik pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement on July 11, 2012.

The IMAGiNE Group, an organized online piracy ring, sought to become the premier group to first release Internet copies of movies only showing in theaters. Cherwonik was indicted along with three other defendants on April 18, 2012, for their roles in the IMAGiNE Group. He admitted to ordering a receiver to be used to capture the audio sound tracks of copyrighted movies (referred to as ‘capping’). Cherwonik wrote the computer code for the IMAGiNE Group’s website.

Javier E. Ferrer, 41, of New Port Richey, Fla., pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement before U.S. District Judge Henry C. Morgan Jr. in the Eastern District of Virginia. At sentencing, scheduled for March 14, 2013, Ferrer faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The investigation of the case and the arrests were conducted by agents with HSI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert J. Krask of the Eastern District of Virginia and Senior Counsel John H. Zacharia of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) are prosecuting the case. Significant assistance was provided by the CCIPS Cyber Crime Lab and the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs.

This case is part of efforts being undertaken by the Attorney General to stop the theft of intellectual property. The Attorney General created the Intellectual Property Task Force to combat the growing number of domestic and international intellectual property crimes, protect the health and safety of American consumers, and safeguard the nation’s economic security.

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