While Apple has been all over news prior to iOS17 launch, retail stores expansion with retail store launch in Mumbai & Delhi, Apple is once again in the news and this time around the news is rather grim.
An Apple Employee Cheats Apple off $17 million
An Apple employee of Indian origin has been sentenced to three years in prison and also has been ordered to pay over 19 million dollars to the company for siphoning off $17 million.
As per the press release from the office of United States’ attorney, the employee made Apple pay for the products that were never received by the company
Prasad who was working as a buyer for Apple’s global service supply chain from 2008 to 2018, was was charged in March 2022 and pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud Apple and related tax crimes in November last year.
He admitted to siphoning money from Apple by accepting kickbacks, stealing parts, inflating invoices, and charging the company for goods that were never delivered.
He also admitted that he conspired with the owners of two vendor companies on these activities and evading taxes on the proceeds.
Prasad Exploited His Position to Cheat Money, Colluded with Vendors
As per the allegations, Prasad exploited his position at Apple and used insider information on the company’s fraud detection techniques to try to hide his illegal activities.
He worked at Apple for a period of 10 years and was responsible to buy the parts for Apple to use to fix old devices that were still under warranty.
He worked with two vendor companies that provided these parts to Apple. He colluded with both of them and cheated Apple more than $17 million. He also did not pay any taxes on the money that he made from this.
As per the press release “According to the government’s sentencing memorandum, by virtue of his position at Apple, Prasad was given substantial discretion to make autonomous decisions to benefit his employer. Prasad betrayed this trust, and abused his power to enrich himself at his employer’s expense – all while accepting hundreds-of-thousands of dollars’ worth of compensation from Apple in the form of salary and bonuses. Additionally, Prasad used his insider information regarding the company’s fraud-detection techniques to design his criminal schemes to avoid detection”.
Instead of using his good position to make decisions to benefit the organization, he used his discretion to cheat and siphon off money. Apple bled while he made himself rich.
Since he was working there for so long, he had the insider information on how Apple would try to catch people who were doing what he was doing, and he made sure to avoid getting caught.
Now that he has been nabbed, not only he must give back all the money and assets he got from cheating Apple, but also he gets a imprisonment of three years.
He also has been directed to pay back the money he didn’t pay in taxes.
Once he is out of prison, he shall further be under surveillance for a period of three more years.
The people who caught Prasad and prosecuted him are named Michael G. Pitman and Karen Beausey. They worked with the IRS to investigate what he was doing.
