The leader of the notorious IMAGiNE BitTorrent piracy ring, Jeramiah Perkins, was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison, the largest sentence for the group’s five top administrators.

In August 2012, Perkins pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. After being given the maximum sentence today, Perkins was also ordered to serve three years under “supervised release” and must pay $15,000 in restitution.

As we reported in April, the group used infrared and FM receivers and camcorders to capture new releases in movie theaters. In a statement, the Department of Justice cited testimony from the Motion Picture Association of America, calling the group "the most prolific motion picture piracy release group operating on the Internet from September 2009 through September 2011."

In the group’s indictment, published last year, Perkins, 40, is quoted as telling Willie Lambert on the group’s message board in July 2010: "I called every local cinema to see what they broadcasted in," adding that "I told them a bs sob story bro…told the manager i had a hearing impaired daughter and she had a phobia about other peoples heads being on there in house equipment so i told them i was going to buy her one, so they would find out and tell me then…"

Three of Perkins’ co-conspirators were sentenced in November 2012 after pleading guilty to several counts of copyright infringement. The fifth co-conspirator, Javier E. Ferrer, is scheduled for sentencing in March 2013.