Las Vegan charged in cable fraud case

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

A Las Vegas business owner is facing federal felony fraud charges of providing cable television services to local hotels at residential rates.

Paul Winquist, 59, of Las Vegas, the owner and operator of Commercial Satellite Systems, is charged with nine felony counts of mail fraud. If convicted, Winquist faces up to 20 years in prison as well as a $250,000 fine on each count.

A summons has been issued for him to be arraigned on Jan. 23.

The indictment alleges that Winquist's scheme was to defraud DISN Network/ Signal Integrity, which provides cable television services such as HBO to residences and hotels. according to Brogden.

The cost of cable service for hotel customers is substantially more than the cost of the services for residential customers and Winquist defrauded DISN Network/Signal Integreity of the full value of its services by causing resident cable services to be used in hotels, U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden said in a press release.

Winquist allegedly obtained residential cable accounts with DISN, in his name and in the names of others, and caused the services to be diverted to hotels.

Winquist then sent a payment by check to DISN for cable services used in the hotels at the residential rates, Bogden said.