FORMER HBO EXECUTIVE ADMITS MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS AND
VIOLATING PROBATION

WASHINGTON — A former Home Box Office Inc. (HBO) executive admitted yesterday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that she made false statements to her probation officer and violated a court ordered home confinement portion of her probation sentence by conducting business activities outside her home, the Department of Justice announced today.

As a result, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, revoked the former executive's, Michele Komack, probation and sentenced her to serve seven months in prison, followed by three years supervised release, for violating the court's order. Komack of Ardsley, N.Y., was originally sentenced to pay a $24,000 fine and to serve 37 months in home confinement. The home confinement sentence was imposed due to the illness of a family member for whom Komack provided care.

On May 10, 2004, Komack, the former Director of Print Services at HBO, pleaded guilty to bid-rigging, conspiracy and tax charges. HBO is a pay television service company headquartered in Manhattan that provides two 24-hour premium television services, HBO and Cinemax, to subscribers principally in the United States by way of cable, direct broadcast satellite and microwave technologies. Komack had primary responsibility for purchasing printing at HBO. She received approximately $439,000 in secret kickbacks from individuals associated with four printing vendors in exchange for steering printing contracts to those companies. She did not report receipt of the kickbacks on her income tax returns.

The original charges against Komack arose from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation of bid rigging, bribery, fraud and tax-related offenses in the advertising and printing and graphics industries. The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division's New York Field Office, with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.

Anyone with information concerning bid rigging, bribery, tax offenses or fraud in the advertising and printing and graphics industries should contact the New York Field Office of the Antitrust Division at (212) 264-9308 or the New York Division of the FBI at (212) 384-3252.

###