A man has been sentenced to several years in prison for committing massive fraud on YouTube. For years, the scam has embezzled more than $23 million and claimed to own the copyright to songs hosted on YouTube.
For five years, the MediaMuv company has collected millions of dollars in royalties from YouTube. The company, which claimed to own the rights to almost 50,000 songs hosted on the platform, even employed between five and eight people responsible for cataloging the songs on YouTube. In total, the company’s founders raked in $23 million — and yet it was a scam.
Jose Teran, one of the two co-founders of MediaMuv, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison by a US court on June 29, 2023, reports The Register. The case was described by prosecutors as “one of the biggest license fraud cases of all time”.
A trick to recover copyrights
Jose Teran, with the help of an accomplice, started his campaign by searching YouTube for songs that had not yet been monetized. Posing as the rights holders of the songs, the two demanded that YouTube pay the royalties for the track: YouTube paid the duo a certain amount for each listen. Most of the target tracks were Latin music, writes The Register, and the charade went on for years.
To gain more credibility, the two scammers founded the company MediaMuv, formed partnerships with other companies and even employed several employees who had to search YouTube for songs that were not yet monetized by the true heirs. After the application for royalties was accepted by YouTube, the company officially received all the revenue.
With their machinations, the two accomplices stole $23 million from the true owners of the songs – Jose Teran personally pocketed more than $6 million and, according to the court, is said to have “lived a luxurious lifestyle”. Even after his indictment, Jose Teran continued to receive royalties from YouTube, reports The Register: After his indictment, he would have received nearly $200,000 in royalties, which he would have deposited into his bank account.
The deception was exposed thanks to the US tax authorities, who began investigating MediaMuv in 2019. The scammers set up multiple bank accounts under false names and used fakes, The Register writes. The newspaper also writes that Jose Teran has not yet said his last word: the convict will intend to return to the world of music after serving his sentence.
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