Chief Digital Officer Of Premium Cable Network Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Defrauding His Employer Of More Than $7 Million

  Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, today announced that EMIL RENSING pled guilty in connection with his scheme to defraud his employer, a premium cable network (the “Network”), of more than $7 million through false statements about purported services to be provided to the Network by companies RENSING owned and controlled that were, in large part, never performed. RENSING pled guilty earlier today before United States Magistrate Judge James L. Cott in Manhattan federal court.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said: “Emil Rensing, an executive at a premium cable network, defrauded his employer out of more than $7 million by causing the network to pay companies Rensing controlled for services that were never rendered. To conceal his role in the payments, Rensing used false and stolen identities and dummy email accounts. I want to thank the FBI for their work to hold Rensing accountable for his crimes.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment to which RENSING pled guilty, a criminal Complaint filed against RENSING, and statements made during the plea and other court proceeding proceedings:

EMIL RENSING defrauded the Network of more than $7 million over the course of his five-year employment with the Network. Through his position as Chief Digital Officer of the Network, RENSING caused the Network to contract with vendor companies owned and controlled by RENSING to perform digital media services for the Network and to perform those services through vendor personnel identified in the contracts. In truth and in fact, however, the promised services were, in large part, never performed, and the vendor personnel designated in the contracts to perform the services – which included several of RENSING’s former professional associates and business partners – had never heard of the vendors or performed services for the Network. These individuals were further unaware that their names were being used by RENSING in this manner.

RENSING concealed his fraudulent scheme by, among other things, using false and stolen identities to hide his own involvement in the scheme. As to one of the vendors used to perpetrate the scheme (“Vendor-1”), RENSING provided the Network with a false name and email address as the “contact” to be used by the Network to communicate with Vendor-1. As to a second vendor, (“Vendor-2”), provided the Network with the name of a personal acquaintance as a “project manager” and “contact” for Vendor-2 when, in truth and in fact, this acquaintance had nothing to do with Vendor-2. Unbeknownst to this personal acquaintance, also established an email account in that acquaintance’s name that RENSING, posing as the acquaintance, used regularly to communicate with the Network about the vendor’s billing and other administrative matters.

After the Network learned of RENSING’s fraudulent scheme, RENSING was interviewed by attorneys for the Network. During this interview, which was recorded at the request of RENSING and his counsel, RENSING made multiple false statements to further conceal his fraudulent scheme.

RENSING, 43, of Manhattan, pled guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and three years of supervised release. The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.

Mr. Kim praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI.