2 County Men Suspected of Selling Pirated Software

Authorities arrested two Ventura County men Thursday on suspicion of distributing counterfeit Microsoft programs through a national software piracy network.

Paul Stamatis, 48, of Thousand Oaks, and Robert Gaboury, 50, of Camarillo, were arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies after a multi-agency sting that resulted in 12 arrests and the seizure of an estimated $4.1 million in counterfeit software. The arrests occurred in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Stamatis and Gaboury had an estimated $1 million in illicit software in their possession, police said.

“This is a big conspiracy,” said John Colbert, an investigator with the sheriff’s computer crimes unit. “We were able to identify and arrest a great number of people who are dealing in thousands of dollars of this stuff almost daily.”

Sheriff’s deputies seized unlicensed software at the residence of Stamatis, who is suspected of selling the bogus software throughout Los Angeles and Ventura counties, Colbert said. They also seized counterfeit software from the home and business of Gaboury, who Colbert said was distributing the software nationally via a Web site.

Deputies, armed with eight search warrants, arrested the other 10 suspects in Los Angeles County.

Some of the arrests were made after investigators followed suspects during a round of parking-lot exchanges that involved handing over the pirated software for money.

New York FBI agents have been investigating the national distribution of counterfeit Microsoft products, such as Microsoft Office, for about a year. When investigators traced the distribution trail of the illicit software to Southern California five months ago, Colbert and other local agencies got involved, he said.

Det. Michael Gurzi, Colbert’s partner, said investigators believe the counterfeit software was manufactured by people connected with organized crime.

The software is distributed to consumers primarily through three methods, police said. Some alleged distributors have been able to get their unlicensed products on store shelves, where they are sold to consumers who are unaware they are buying counterfeit products. Others sell the bogus programs cheap to computer sellers who install the software on machines and convince consumers they are getting great deals with bundled programs. And others, like Gaboury, sold the products through Internet newsgroups, Gurzi said.

The FBI’s involvement in the case is part of the Department of Justice’s National Intellectual Property Initiative Campaign, which Colbert said cracks down on software piracy and other computer crimes.