Former Weber Shandwick CFO sentenced to 52 months after embezzling $16 million
Frank Okunak was also ordered to pay $27 million in fines and restitution.
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The former chief operating officer and chief financial officer of global public relations firm Weber Shandwick has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to embezzling $16 million over a nine-year period ending in 2020.
Frank Okunak was sentenced to 52 months on Dec. 6 by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, who ordered the fallen executive to pay back the $16 million in restitution and forfeit an additional $10.8 million.
Okunak’s sentence “should serve as a warning to executives that if they use their company’s money as if it were their own, they will face lengthy prison time,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
In court documents, prosecutors said Okunak took full responsibility and provided exculpatory evidence for former colleagues, showing he acted alone.
Weber Shandwick, a division of Interpublic Group of Cos., has more than 4,000 employees. Its clients include Budweiser and Barbie. In 2019 Weber was named Global Agency of the Year by the Holmes Report, an industry publication. In 2020 it was named to the Ad Age A-List.
Okunak, 56, joined a Weber predecessor in 1995 and became global CFO in 2009. He added the COO title in 2013.
Prosecutors said he diverted Weber Shandwick money to fund startup capital for his side businesses, then had those businesses become vendors to the company, although they didn’t provide any actual services. He spent $3 million on tickets to sporting events that weren’t for business purposes. He also used company money to cover tuition to Rutgers University and even pocketed the cash when the Rutgers money was refunded.
“I justified and rationalized using Weber’s money to give myself opportunities that I should not have, thinking that I earned it or that I was special,” Okunak said in a letter to Castel, the judge.
Okunak and his wife divorced in 2020, the year law enforcement approached him and he was terminated by Weber Shandwick. She said the legal ordeal has taken a terrible toll on their two adult children and the rest of the family.
“It is difficult to experience any sort of joy,” she told the judge in a letter last month.
Aaron Elstein is a senior finance reporter at Crain's New York Business.
