Ex-NBC Universal bookkeeper pleads guilty to fraud
By Martha Graybow
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former bookkeeper at NBC Universal pleaded guilty on Friday to participating in a scheme to steal more than $1 million that he and his boss were accused of using for personal expenses, including a summer rental home.
The plea comes several months after a guilty plea by the man's supervisor, former NBC Universal treasurer Victor Jung, who was charged in January 2007 with taking part in the scheme to steal from the media conglomerate.
James Walsh, 35, who was not named as a defendant in the original case, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud at a hearing in U.S. Magistrate's Court in Manhattan.
According to a superseding indictment in the Jung case filed by prosecutors in May, Jung and an unidentified co-conspirator engaged in a scheme to embezzle funds from the media company.
A lawyer for Walsh, Douglas Grover, said after Friday's hearing that Walsh was the person named as the unidentified co-conspirator in the May court papers. Walsh left the General Electric Co-owned media company in 2006, his lawyer said.
In court on Friday, Walsh said he helped his boss carry out the fraud, which began in 2005. He admitted to knowingly causing a $238,450 illegal wire transfer in April 2006 from a GE account to a checking account for a dummy company that, according to court documents, had been set up by Jung.
Walsh told Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz he kept some of the money from the scheme to pay down credit card loans and other personal expenses.
According to the May indictment, Jung and his unidentified co-conspirator used the stolen money to pay about $40,000 in fees for a summer rental home in Southampton, New York, as well as for a birthday party that Jung threw for Walsh.
The indictment said Jung, along with others who were not identified, also used some of the money to fly by private jet to Miami, Antigua and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
An NBC Universal representative declined to comment on the case.
According to sentencing guidelines, Walsh could get a prison term of 21 months to 27 months when he is sentenced. His sentencing date was set for November 4.
Jung pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiracy and three counts of wire fraud. He is also due to be sentenced in November, according to court filings.
(Editing by Andre Grenon, Toni Reinhold)
