NEW YORK — A former HBO executive who was sentenced to three years and one month of home detention after admitting she received more than $400,000 in kickbacks from printing vendors must now spend seven months in prison, prosecutors say.
Michele Komack, former director of print services at Home Box Office Inc., pleaded guilty in 2004 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to bid rigging, conspiracy and tax charges.
At a hearing Wednesday, federal Judge Kevin Castel imposed the jail term after Komack made false statements to her probation officer and violated home detention by conducting business activities outside her home, the Department of Justice said in a news release.
The judge had originally rejected federal sentencing guidelines calling for a prison term of more than three years after concluding that Komack was needed at home to care for her ill daughter. The judge had criticized Komack, of Scarsdale, N.Y., for what he called “pure greed,” saying she used stolen money to live lavishly with a luxury automobile, designer shoes, a large-screen television and a wedding at a posh hotel.
Komack admitted receiving $439,000 in kickbacks between September 1997 and February 1999 from an Englewood, N.J., company in exchange for HBO printing contracts.
