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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DECEMBER 11, 2008 |
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FORMER
TREASURER OF NBC UNIVERSAL SENTENCED
TO A YEAR AND A DAY IN PRISON FOR STEALING
OVER $1 MILLION FROM HIS EMPLOYER
LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that VICTOR JUNG,the former Treasurer of NBC Universal, was sentenced this morning to one year and one day in prison for his participation in a scheme to steal over $1,000,000 from NBC Universal ("NBCU") and use the stolen money for his own personal benefit. United States District Judge LORETTA A. PRESKA imposed the sentence in Manhattan federal court. According to the Information to which he pleaded guilty, other court documents in this case, and statements made in court proceedings:
JUNG was employed as the Treasurer of NBCU and worked out of its offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan. As part of his duties, JUNG was responsible for collection efforts related to NBCU's business and for oversight of the company's bank accounts. JUNG was also responsible for financial analyses and reporting to NBCU's parent company, General Electric Capital Corporation ("GE").
In November 2005, without the authorization of either NBCU or GE, JUNG set up a company he called NBCU Media Productions, LLC (the "LLC"). At no time was this company a part of NBCU or GE's portfolio of companies and subsidiary companies.
JUNG thereafter opened bank accounts for the LLC at a branch of Commerce Bank in Manhattan, and caused two wire transfers to be sent - one for approximately $575,000 in January 2006 and another for approximately $238,450 in April 2006 - from an account held by GE in Stamford, Connecticut to two different accounts of the LLC at Commerce Bank.
JUNG used the money from these fraudulent wire transfers for his personal benefit, including several flights on private jets to places such as Miami, Antigua and the Turks and Caicos Islands. On these flights, JUNG and his travel companions consumed catered Veuve Clicquot champagne, Grey Goose vodka, Mondavi wine, and shrimp cocktail.
JUNG also used the money from the fraudulent wire transfers to rent a summer home in the Hamptons at a cost of $56,000, and to pay off more than $87,000 in charges on his American Express card.
In addition to the prison term, Judge PRESKA sentenced JUNG, 36, of New York, New York, to three years of supervised release.
JUNG's sentence follows his guilty plea earlier this year, pursuant to a cooperation agreement with the Government, to an Information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud. JAMES WALSH,who also participated in the fraud at NBC, pleaded guilty on August 1, 2008 was sentenced on December 2, 2009, by United States District Judge P. KEVIN CASTEL, to 21 months in prison.
Mr. DASSIN praised
the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in conducting this investigation.
This case is being prosecuted by the Office's Major Crimes Unit. Assistant
United States Attorney SEETHA RAMACHANDRAN is in charge of the prosecution.