The State : Fine Issued for Political Gifts

Video entrepreneur Stuart Karl Jr. was fined $60,000 and placed on three years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to charges involving $185,000 in illegal campaign contributions to Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart and congressional candidates in six states in 1984 and 1986. “Your honor, I regret doing these things that brought me here today,” Karl told U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler in Santa Ana. Karl, 35, of Newport Beach, pleaded guilty Aug. 2 to violating federal campaign contribution laws and pledged his cooperation in an FBI investigation of illegal contributions to Hart and others. Karl, who became a multimillionaire as producer of the Jane Fonda’s Workout videos, had been accused of concealing excessive campaign contributions through people who were later reimbursed and making corporate contributions disguised as personal contributions.