Apple Stung By Rs 136 Crore Fraud Orchestrated By Indian-Origin Employee: Here’s The Modus Operandi
A former Apple employee named Dhirendra Prasad has admitted that he committed fraud that led to a loss of more than $17 million (over Rs 140 crores) for the company.
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His tenure at Apple
He worked as a buyer for Apple’s Global Service Supply chain.
He worked at the firm from 2008 to 2018 and was responsible for buying parts and services from various vendors.
How it began
He said he began to defraud Apple back in 2011 by taking kickbacks, inflating invoices, stealing parts and charging Apple for services it never received.
He informed prosecutors that the schemes continued through 2018 and cost the company upwards of $17 million.
He also gave up the names of his co-conspirators including Robert Gary Hansen and Don M Baker.
Both owned vendor companies which engaged in business with Apple.
How he did it
In 2013 Prasad had motherboards shipped from Apple’s inventory to Baker’s company, CTrends.
Baker arranged to have the motherboards’ components harvested, and Prasad arranged for Apple to issue purchase orders for those harvested components.
CTrends submitted invoices to Apple, thus billing Apple for its own components.
The former then shipped the harvested components back to Apple and his company.
Tax fraud as well
In addition to the Apple fraud case, Prasad has also admitted that he committed tax fraud by funneling illicit payments from Hansen directly to Prasad’s creditors.
He arranged for a shell company to issue fake invoices to CTrends in order to conceal Baker’s illicit payments to Prasad.
Baker would be able to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars of unjustified tax deductions.
These schemes resulted in an Internal Revenue Service or IRS loss of more than $1.8 million.
Looking at 20 year imprisonment
Prasad will face a sentencing hearing on March 14, 2023.
Till then, he will stay out of custody.
He could face more than 20 years in prison.
His co-conspirators have been charged in separate federal cases.
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