Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A British citizen pleaded guilty to his involvement in an alleged worldwide piracy ring. The ring distributed illegal movies online and caused major losses to production studios.

George Bridi (52) entered his plea at a hearing by telephone before Richard Berman, U.S. District Judge, Manhattan.

While he acknowledged being “a little nervous”, he replied clearly to the judge that he was pleading guilty for his guilt.

Bridi was working for Sparks Group. According to prosecutors this cost studios millions over a decade because they leaked TV shows and movies before their release date.

Sparks, according to the prosecution, obtained copies in advance from Blu-Ray distributors of copied DVDs and Blu Ray discs.

Sparks, who was then accused of using computers to disable copyright protections on the discs (also known as “cracking” and “ripping”), also recoded discs in order for them to be accessible online.

According to the indictment, reproduced content was identified with names like “Rovers,” Drones,” and “Geckos.”

Bridi is an Italian citizen who lived on the Isle of Wight. In August 2020, Bridi was detained in Cyprus and later extradited.

According to federal guidelines for his Jan. 20, 2022 sentencing, he may face between 2 and 3 years imprisonment.

Two other Americans were also indicted by U.S. authorities for the same scheme.

Jonatan Correa, one of the defendants, pleaded guilty in May to copyright infringement conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years of supervised freedom. Umar Ahmad from Norway was the other defendant.