The Case of the Disappearing CEO
The federal government hasn’t collected a $22.3 million judgment against the former CEO of Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc.—and doesn’t know where he is, according to a Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) story.
A federal judge had ordered the payment last March in an accounting fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Henry C. Yuen.
Yuen had testified he erased his computer’s hard drive containing e-mails and other documents that had been subpoenaed in that case. In 2005, he reached a deal with federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, pleading guilty to illegally destroying evidence in a criminal justice investigation. He was to receive a sentence of six months’ home detention, but the judge refused to enforce the agreement because he believed it was too lenient, the newspaper says.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a judge to imprison Yuen and impose a daily fine until he pays the judgment from its civil case against him.
