The United States Attorney's Office

EX-CHAIRMAN OF GEMSTAR-TV INDICTED FOR OBSTRUCTING SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION INVESTIGATION
           
Henry C. Yuen, the former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc., was indicted today on a felony charge of obstructing an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into alleged accounting irregularities at Gemstar from 1999 through 2002.

According to the indictment, the SEC began a formal investigation of the publicly traded Gemstar in October 2002. Yuen received a subpoena from the SEC requiring him to provide the SEC with a broad range of items including e-mails, correspondence and all documents concerning Gemstar, including documents stored on his computer. After receiving this subpoena, Yuen allegedly deleted from his computer e-mails and Gemstar corporate documents that the subpoena required him to produce.

Yuen also received a subpoena to testify before SEC investigators.  In March 2003, the day before Yuen was scheduled to appear and testify before the SEC, Yuen allegedly ran a program on his computer that made it impossible to recover the documents he had previously deleted.

The charge of obstructing an SEC investigation carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.

The SEC successfully sued Yuen on charges of violating the federal securities laws, and a court recently ruled that Yuen was not entitled to a $29.5 million severance package (see: http://www.sec.gov/news/digest/2008/dig040908.htm).

Yuen’s whereabouts are currently unknown. Anyone with information about Yuen’s whereabouts is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles Field Office of the FBI at (310) 477-6565.

This criminal case against Yuen was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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