Former Apple employee sentenced for stealing $17 million

A former Apple worker has been sentenced to a few years in jail and should pay again over $19 million in restitution for stealing round $17 million from the tech big by mail and wire fraud schemes. Dhirendra Prasad, 55, was initially charged in March 2022 and later pleaded responsible to conspiring to defraud Apple and associated tax crimes again in November final yr.

Prasad was employed on the firm between 2008 and 2018, principally working as a purchaser in Apple’s world service provide chain, buying components and providers from distributors. In his written plea settlement, Prasad admitted he began siphoning cash from his employer round 2011 by accepting kickbacks, stealing components, inflating invoices, and fraudulently charging Apple for items that have been by no means delivered. He additionally admitted to evading tax on the proceeds of his schemes and conspiring on these actions with the homeowners of two vendor corporations, who’ve been charged in separate circumstances.

America Division of Justice (DOJ) claims that Prasad exploited his place as a purchaser and used insider info relating to Apple’s fraud detection methods to try to cover his legal actions. “By advantage of his place at Apple Prasad was given substantial discretion to make autonomous selections to profit his employer,” mentioned the DOJ in an announcement revealed on Wednesday. “Prasad betrayed this belief, and abused his energy to counterpoint himself at his employer’s expense – all whereas accepting hundreds-of-thousands of {dollars}’ price of compensation from Apple within the type of wage and bonuses.”

Prasad pleaded responsible to at least one rely of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and one rely of conspiracy to defraud america. Along with his three-year jail sentence, Prasad has agreed to pay again $19,270,683 in restitutions — $17,398,104 to Apple and $1,872,579 to the IRS for the tax he owes. He has additionally been ordered to forfeit over $5.4 million price of belongings that the federal government has already seized and pay an extra $8.1 million in money.