Judge Tentatively Rejects Gemstar Ex-Chief’s Deal

Former Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. Chief Executive Henry Yuen may face jail time after a judge said a plea deal with prosecutors in a case over document destruction wasn’t a sufficient punishment.

U.S. District Judge John Walter at a hearing in Los Angeles tentatively rejected a proposed sentence of six months home detention, a $1-million donation to charities for fraud victims and a $250,000 fine that Yuen and federal prosecutors had agreed on for his guilty plea.

Walter will make a final decision Jan. 23.

Yuen, 57, pleaded guilty to destroying documents sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of an accounting probe of Gemstar. In a separate civil trial in Los Angeles, the SEC accuses Yuen of reporting false advertising sales and inflated revenue by about $248 million from 1999 to 2002.