Local News in Brief : Newport Beach : Prosecutors to Seek Karl Sentencing Delay

Federal prosecutors said Monday they will ask for a delay in the sentencing of Newport Beach video entrepreneur Stuart Karl, who pleaded guilty last month of violating federal campaign laws.

Karl, 35, was scheduled to be sentenced next Monday, but Assistant U.S. Atty. Nancy Wieben Stock said Karl is assisting in an ongoing federal investigation into illegal contributions. As a result, she said, her office will ask that Karl’s sentencing be delayed, probably for no longer than a month.

Karl, a 1971 Corona del Mar High School graduate who made his name in the video business after marketing Jane Fonda’s workout tapes, pleaded guilty to two counts of a 12-count indictment charging him with a series of illegal contributions, most of them to Gary Hart’s 1984 presidential campaign. The indictments allege, in part, that Karl circumvented federal campaign contribution laws by asking employees of his Karl Home Video company to give money to various campaigns, for which he later reimbursed them.

The indictments alleged that Karl channeled nearly $200,000 in illegal contributions into the campaigns.

Under terms of a plea bargain agreement, Karl won’t be sent to jail. Instead, he faces fines of up to $350,000 and as much as six years’ probation. The two counts to which he pleaded guilty--a felony and a misdemeanor--carry a combined maximum sentence of six years in prison.