GLENDALE POLICE SCRAMBLING TO STOP CABLE FRAUD SECRET SERVICE ASSISTING IN EFFORT AGAINST OPERATION.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Glendale police have cracked a large cable television fraud operation, one that likely accounted for more than $50 million in thefts over the past decade, investigators said Friday.

In a raid earlier this week, authorities seized 3,300 illegal cable descrambling boxes and $250,000 in cash at a garage in the 1500 block of Columbia Drive, officials said.

``They make busts like this all the time, but this one is unique because it was such a large operation and the Glendale police got into it right in the middle,'' said Don Masters, assistant to the special Secret Service agent in charge.

Members of the Secret Service have been brought in to help with the ongoing investigation.

Glendale brothers Arthur Karanfilian, 18, and Vardkis Karanfilian, 26, were arrested in Monday's raid on suspicion of manufacturing and distribution of illegal cable descramblers. Glendale police Officer John Genna said authorities are looking into other leads that could produce more arrests.

Both suspects have posted $20,000 bail bonds.

Glendale police have also seized a computer database with thousands of client names, and the Secret Service could conduct nationwide searches of the customers on the list, Genna said.

The brothers are accused of selling the boxes for about $80 apiece on eBay and from their own Web site, Genna said.

According to Genna, the suspects would buy the boxes and then install special computer chips that descramble otherwise regulated cable signals, giving buyers cable access for free.

The cable industry estimates it loses about $550 annually on each of the descrambling boxes, and more than $6 billion in losses every year, said Michael Asghari, director of security for Charter Communications, which provides cable services in Glendale.

``This is a national issue - we are aggressively increasing our anti-theft efforts and sting operations ... to make sure that the people who use this illegal equipment pay for their crimes and not pass the cost on to customers,'' Asghari said.

Records kept by the suspects indicate they sold more than 30 boxes a day for the past nine years, Genna said, meaning they could have sold as many as 100,000 boxes in the past decade.

That translates into more than $50 million in damages to cable companies throughout the United States in the past decade, ``and that's a conservative estimate,'' Genna said.

Anyone found using an illegal cable box would face criminal charges and a fine of up to $5,000, Genna said.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Larry Ng says such fraud is rampant.

``Cable and satellite signal theft is a huge problem and one that the states and the federal government want to address,'' Ng said.