
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, December 13, 1994                   TAG: 9412130085
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                 LENGTH: Short

MAN INDICTED IN SATELLITE SCAM

A Wytheville man has been indicted on 37 federal charges related to a scheme to steal the signals of premium cable television channels.

Dennis Eugene Allison, 54, is accused of mailing some 9,000 newsletters to satellite dish owners between the start of 1991 and March 1993, offering for sale code numbers used to receive scrambled programming illegally.

The indictments include mail fraud and illegal possession of 36 decoder devices used to intercept and unscramble satellite signals from subscription TV channels like Showtime, Home Box Office and Cinemax.

Allison could be sentenced to a maximum of 185 years in prison and fined as much as $9 million if convicted of all charges.

- New River Valley bureau

by CNB