Former Warner Music executive pleads guilty to stealing from record label

By Marcus E. Howard

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Warner Music Group executive accused of embezzling more than $1 million pleaded guilty this week as part of a plea deal, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office confirmed Thursday.

Danielle Smith, who worked with artists for Warner Music's Atlantic Records division in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree grand larceny for using a corporate credit card for personal expenses over a four-year period. She was originally charged with first-degree grand larceny.

In 2014, a New York grand jury indicted her on the charge that said the property she stole from the New York-based record label was valued at more than $1 million. The theft was said to have taken place between Sept. 26, 2007 and Sept. 29, 2011 in New York and elsewhere.

Her attorney was not immediately available for comment.

In 2012, Smith was named among Hollywood's "power women" by Variety magazine for raising between $200,000 and $500,000 for President Barack Obama's re-election.

Smith's sentence is likely to involve paying $500,000 in restitution and five years of probation, according to those familiar with the plea deal.

She is scheduled to appear in court on June 15.

(Reporting by Marcus E. Howard; Editing by James Dalgleish)