Anthony Lee Marinaccio, 42, was arrested at his Princeville home on Thursday by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and Kauai police officers, according to the FBI. He was indicted June 21 for conspiracy, wire fraud and cable theft.
The FBI said Marinaccio was one of 14 people in Florida, Texas, California and Hawaii charged with stealing 16,500 cable TV converter boxes, doctoring them so they could illegally pick up and translate scrambled cable signals and then reselling the boxes. Five of the 14 earlier pleaded guilty.
Marinaccio was released on bond after a hearing on Thursday and is scheduled to appear in federal court in New Jersey at a date yet to be set.
Marinaccio was chief financial officer of Novaplex Inc. of Sun Valley, Calif., one of two companies allegedly used to market the boxes and steal cable TV signals, according to the indictment.
Marinaccio and two of the other defendants earlier had been ordered by a court to quit manufacturing and distributing illegal television signal descramblers, so they instead shipped the components to one of the other defendants who made them into cable "black boxes" and resold them, the indictment says.
The FBI said the widespread conspiracy was uncovered through a sting operation in Kenilworth, N.J., in which the government set up a business in 1992 to infiltrate the cable piracy trade.
The piracy ring is charged with theft of 3,500 cable signal converter boxes that were being held as evidence by the Los Angeles Police Department, 3,000 others stolen from a truck on the way from California to Arizona and 10,000 stolen from cable operators in the Baltimore area.
One of the defendants who earlier pleaded guilty was a computer expert whose company made $800,000 worth of decoder chips that enabled users of the converter boxes to receive premium cable signals without paying for them.
The FBI said the group was caught with the help of a cable industry security employee who worked undercover for the bureau. The 92-count grand jury indictment said the conspirators bribed him with $100,000 cash and a $40,000 Porsche.
Marinaccio and his Los Angeles-based attorney both declined to comment on Friday.