John Loan, known as the record producer John Jerome of Jerome Records, pleaded guilty April 16 to charges that he embezzled $3.5 million from his employer by submitting false invoices.
Some of the money went toward funding the record label and putting out CDs of cabaret and theatre artists. The New York Post reported that the 41-year-old Loan will be sentenced to three years in prison in exchange for his plea in Manhattan Supreme Court. He was also ordered to pay back the money to Alliance Capital Management, the money-management firm for which he worked. His lawyer said the money has been spent.
The Post quoted his lawyer saying that with good behavior, Loan could get out of jail on work release in nine months.
Had he gone to trial and been found guilty, he faced as much as 8-25 years in prison.
Loan's arrest earlier this year shocked the cabaret and recording community, sending legit artists scrambling to get their product released on other labels and embarrassing those who had links to Jerome Records. *
Loan, a corporate party planner known in the New York cabaret community as John Jerome, initially pleaded not guilty to grand larceny charges Feb. 6 in Manhattan, The New York Post reported.
Loan was charged with grand larceny in the first degree for billing Alliance Capital Management millions since 1998 for services that he apparently never provided as their banquet manager. An internal audit at the Manhattan investment firm raised red flags that led to Loan's arrest Jan. 14.
Jerome Records' list of attached artists has included Jeff Harnar, Heather MacRae, Steven Brinberg, Karen Mason, Phillip Officer, Julie Wilson, Jessica Molaskey, Stephanie Pope, Laurie Krauz, Mary Testa, Anna Bergman and more.
Jerome Records' mission, according to the website, which is no longer functional, was "preserving the work of promising young artists as well as theatre and cabaret veterans. Words and music mean nothing without passion. Jerome Records Inc. is dedicated to artists, and audiences, who honor that truth."
— By Kenneth Jones
