Fifteen people were indicted on charges involving a scheme to reprogram and sell access cards to unscramble signals from the DirecTV satellite television service.
Published reports say five were charged with mail fraud and 10 with manufacturing and distributing satellite television access devices. Nine have been arrested. The rest are at large. Most are from California.
DirecTV lost $45 million in the scheme.
Customers were charged up to $800 for the illegal cards, which were advertised on the Internet.
Authorities in California are now focusing on tracking down who produced the software that allowed the card reprogramming.
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