Source: San Diego Union Tribune
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – A former licensing agent for World Wrestling Entertainment admitted Friday to participating in a $1 million kickback scheme.
Stanley Shenker, 61, of New Canaan pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport to conspiring to defraud WWE by paying about $1 million in kickbacks to a WWE insider.
Shenker was the sole corporate officer of Stanley Shenker and Associates, Inc., which provided licensing services to WWE. He admitted that he agreed with James Bell, WWE’s senior vice president of licensing and merchandising, to defraud WWE by paying kickbacks to Bell for future business, and then concealing the secret payments from WWE.
During the conspiracy from 1998 to 2002, Shenker secretly paid Bell about $950,000, a fraction of commissions Shenker received from WWE. Shenker and Bell disguised the payments by falsely suggesting in invoices that Bell had earned the payments by providing consulting services, prosecutors said.
With the fake invoices, Shenker was able to deduct the payments on his tax returns as purported business expenses, authorities said.
Shenker faces up to five years in prison and fine of up to $4 million when he is sentenced April 12.
Bell pleaded guilty in 2005 to a related charge and is awaiting sentencing.
