After conviction for selling subscriptions for an illegal streaming TV service; Ciaran Donovan, a 42 year-old father of four from County Kildare, Ireland, was sentenced to 16 months in prison. His offenses were for violation of the Criminal Justice Act of 2010, Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.
For an annual fee of €70, Donovan provided access codes allowing subscribers to access King Kong Media from 2016 to 2022, which provided an app to illegally watch Sky Sports, BT Sports and other copyrighted programming. According to local news reports, this resulted in losses of more than €2 million to Sky. Illegal streaming activity had been discovered by Sky’s anti-piracy unit.
The King Kong Media service was openly available, promoted through social media, and maintained a staff of sales and support personnel. Reporting by The Irish Times said that Donovan was “easily identified as the individual in control of the website.”
Although Donovan had pleaded guilty to receiving about €470,500 in proceeds from illegal sales, he continued to operate the service into 2024, during which time the number of subscribers doubled from 2,500 to 5,000. This resulted in a guilty plea to a second set of money laundering charges in July 2024 for about €430,000 in addition; making a total of more than €900,000.
Sentencing for the first round of offenses was for 40 months, and an additional 30 months for the second round. But in a show of leniency, the judge allowed the sentences to be served concurrently, minus time already served; as Donovan has a five year-old child with special needs. The full sentence would be reinstated if any evidence arises that Donovan resumes illegal operations.
Further reading
King Kong Media’s Fall: How illegal streaming led to a 16 month prison sentence. Article. August 1, 2024. by Tejaswini Deshmukh. Regtech Times (USA)
Operator of ‘dodgy box’ service jailed for 16 months. Article. July 31, 2024. RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann, national public media service of Ireland)
“Dodgy box” TV service operator jailed for 16 months. Article. July 31, 2024. By Fiachra Gallagher. The Irish Times.
Kildare ‘dodgy box’ operator receives jail sentence. Article. August 1, 2024. By Sean McCarthaigh. Kildare Nationalist
Why it matters
By watching illegally distributed programming, Donovan’s 5,000 subscribers had been victims of this streaming service, not just the media companies Sky and BT
(Image: Ciaran Donovan, operator of illegal King Kong Media streaming service. Source (c) Kildare Nationalist)
