A former Miami-based cable executive will pay the government a $4 million fine and spend up to nine years in jail as punishment for defrauding the U.S. military out of millions of dollars by billing the Department of Defense for unbuilt cable plant, among other schemes.
Charles C.Hermanowski, the former operator of Americable International, was sentenced March 5. He pled guilty to 39 tax and fraud charges in federal court in December 2006.
During the investigation, the executive was also found to have directed employees to underreport revenue to up to 50 cable networks, cheating those businesses out of subscription fees, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
The schemes came to light in 1997, when Americable submitted termination-settlement proposals to the military, seeking compensation for plant at bases scheduled to be closed. Auditors determined that the plant had either not been built or was not as broadly deployed as the company claimed.
When a grand jury issued a subpoena for handwriting samples from Hermanowski in 2000, he fled the county. He was detained by authorities in Australia two years later. The former executive was traveling on a Grenadian passport obtained in the name of a dead former neighbor.
He fought extradition for four years, according to federal authorities.
Prior to this sentence, in 2002, executives of corporate entities Americable International, Americable International Moffett and Americable International New York pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the government.
Americable comptroller AlicePirchesky and treasurer Rick Hensley were also prosecuted and received prison time.
