Ex-QVC exec gets prison for fraud

PHILADELPHIA » A former executive at the West Chester-based online shopping giant QVC Tuesday was sentenced to 30 months in jail for his role in an elaborate scheme to rip off the shopping network to the tune of more than $1 million.

Federal authorities painted James D. Falkowski, 42, of Buffalo, N.Y., as a man who used company funds to fund his lavish lifestyle, including first-class travel and hotels stays, and even his Botox treatments.

Falkowski, whose job it was to improve the network’s brand in the entertainment and fashion industries, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, according to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams

Falkowski operated a multi-faceted fraud scheme while working as a director at QVC Inc., the home shopping network based in West Goshen.

Falkowski previously pleaded guilty on March 20 to 11 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Federal Judge Michael M. Baylson also ordered that the defendant pay $832,138.55 in restitution.

“This defendant used his position, his access, and his employer to fund a lifestyle that would have otherwise been beyond his reach,” said Williams. “Today’s sentence should serve as a deterrent to anyone who believes he can steal from his employer and successfully

“This defendant used his position, his access, and his employer to fund a lifestyle that would have otherwise been beyond his reach.”

— First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams

cover his tracks.”

Falkowski – a director from 2008 until his termination in 2013 – was responsible for enhancing QVC’s brand and reputation in the entertainment and fashion industries. Falkowski used his position at QVC to embezzle and fraudulently obtain from the network more than $1 million worth of money, goods, and services, all

without QVC’s knowledge or approval. These luxuries included hundreds of thousands of dollars of firstclass travel, hotel and resort stays, spa treatments, dining at upscale restaurants, luxury clothing and accessories, and personal medical treatments, such as Botox treatments.

To hide his actions from QVC, Falkowski created fake invoices purporting to be from the Four Seasons Hotels, luxury car service companies, and other vendors in order to deceive QVC into paying for Falkowski’s fraud. Falkowski also enlisted the assistance of two QVC vendors to help him defraud QVC. Those two vendors – Los Angeles-based public relations agency the Steinberg Group, doing business as “dOMAIN,” and a New York City-based production management company – agreed to submit fraudulently altered invoices and bills to QVC in order to hide Falkowski’s embezzlement, according to the federal charges.

Additionally, Falkowski caused QVC to pay more than $200,000 in private luxury chauffeur rides for himself and his associates, approximately $70,000 in payments to his personal creditors, as well as $59,500 in gift cards from American Express, Tom Ford, and Barney’s New York that Falkowski claimed were for distribution to talent, but which he instead used for himself.

Falkowski blamed the fraud on his long-standing drug problems.

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Mannion.