The founder of Americable International, which conducted part of its business building cable systems on military bases, has been sentenced to up to nine years in prison and must pay a $4 million fine for defrauding the government.
Charles C. Hermanowski of Miami Beach, Fla. pled guilty last December to 39 felony counts, including tax evasion, aiding in the preparation of false tax returns, filing false financial claims to the U.S. Department of Defense and defrauding cable networks. During the course of the investigation, it was determined that the company, at Hermanowski's direction, underreported subscriber figures to up to 50 cable networks, cheating those vendors out of carriage revenues.
Hermanowski was sentenced March 5, ending a nine-year multinational saga.
The company came to the attention of federal investigators as a result of a claim for reimbursement executives filed with the Defense Department in 1998. That claim sought $3.8 million in reimbursement for cable plant on military bases that were scheduled for closure. But a federal auditor determined that some of the plant either hadn't been constructed, or was not as vast as the claim stated. As part of that investigation, a search warrant was executed at Americable's South Florida headquarters, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
An examination of the data obtained from the company determined that Hermanowski had obtained an estimated $45 million through false invoices for non-existent construction companies. The executive allegedly used some of this money for his personal art collection and placed other funds in banks in Miami and Liechtenstein.
When a grand jury subpoena was issued for a handwriting sample in 2000 to determine if Hermanowski had signed questionable documents, the executive disappeared. Investigators later determined Hermanowski had obtained a Grenadian passport in the name of a former neighbor who had died. He fled to Canada via Barbados, then to New Zealand. He was captured in Australia in 2002.
He fought extradition for four years, but was returned to the U.S. last year.
While he was in Australia, federal officials continued their prosecution of Americable, its affiliates and other corporate officials. In 2002, guilty pleas were entered on behalf of Americable International, Americable International Moffett and Americable International New York on charges of defrauding the DOD and cable networks, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The companies were sentenced to $22 million in fines and restitution.
