A man who bilked EchoStar out of more than $1 million by creating bogus customer accounts has been sentenced to 33 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $663,729 in restitution to EchoStar, now Dish Network.
The man, 30-year-old Joseph Masek of Orange, Calif., had previously paid $1,089,171 as a result of the scheme that EchoStar brought to the attention of the FBI’s Denver office in July 2005.
Masek was owner of Satellites and More, a Santa Ana company, which purchases and installs satellite dish equipment and programming for EchoStar.
Masek was an independent installer of EchoStar, a direct television satellite service, which is an alternative to cable.
Federal prosecutors said that Masek created more than 4,000 bogus customer account applications from February 2005 through June 2005.
As a result, he received approximately $2 million in hardware reimbursements, reseller commissions, and other payments from EchoStar.
Masek pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
