Former employee admits defrauding Apple of $17 million

Posted:
in General Discussion
A former parts and services buyer at Apple has pleaded guilty to over $17 million in fraud against Apple, and now faces up to 20 years in jail.




Dhirendra Prasad was originally charged with fraud in March 2022, when it was alleged that he had obtained kickbacks, and made Apple pay for undelivered goods and services. Working in Apple's Global Service Supply Chain division, it was then claimed that he defrauded the company out of $10 million during his ten-year employment from 2008.

Now according to CNET, Prasad has pleaded guilty to the charges, and admitted to over $17 million in a written plea statement. His statement says that he began defrauding Apple in 2011 with schemes including inflating invoices.

Prasad worked with two co-conspirators, Robert Gary Hansen and Don M. Baker, who have both been charged and admitted their involvement. The three used a shell company to hide illicit payments, and reportedly also benefited from unjustified tax deductions in the process.

CNET says that Prasad has agreed to forfeit $5 million in unspecified assets bought with the money. He faces up to 20 years in jail for mail fraud and wire fraud, plus potentially five years for defrauding the US.

Prasad's sentencing hearing will take place on March 14, 2023. No details have been released concerning Hansen or Baker's sentencing, and Apple has not yet commented on the case.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    fred1fred1 Posts: 1,112member
    He admits to taking 17 million and has to give back 5? Who says crime doesn’t pay? And he’ll probably be out of jail in five years for admitting to the crime. Murderers get less time.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 9
    fred1 said:
    He admits to taking 17 million and has to give back 5? Who says crime doesn’t pay? And he’ll probably be out of jail in five years for admitting to the crime. Murderers get less time.

    The article states that there were three people involved. 17M between three people is 5.66M each so 5M is closer to being correct than you thought..
    ronnwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 9
    fred1fred1 Posts: 1,112member
    fred1 said:
    He admits to taking 17 million and has to give back 5? Who says crime doesn’t pay? And he’ll probably be out of jail in five years for admitting to the crime. Murderers get less time.

    The article states that there were three people involved. 17M between three people is 5.66M each so 5M is closer to being correct than you thought..
    So they only keep 6 grand each. Not so bad. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 9
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Perps usually don’t plead guilty unless they got some kind of plea deal. I wonder what it was.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 9
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,360member
    Writing a statement detailing and admitting to a crime is a required part of a plead deal in almost every court, there's even a word for that bit but it escapes me. So it's almost a certainty that they all got plea deals for lesser sentencing. So yeah what did they get? Probably not a open plea deal but if the prosecutions case is a strong as it looks, they're all over a barrel.

    The mail fraud bit is federal, and there's no parole. Don't know how time off for good behavior compares to state time. So maybe they don't want to do Federal time or maybe they'd want to do Club Fed instead of state time.

    fred1 said:
    fred1 said:
    He admits to taking 17 million and has to give back 5? Who says crime doesn’t pay? And he’ll probably be out of jail in five years for admitting to the crime. Murderers get less time.

    The article states that there were three people involved. 17M between three people is 5.66M each so 5M is closer to being correct than you thought..
    So they only keep 6 grand each. Not so bad. 
    Are you high? Can't find work or keep a job? Let's say they 'only' do 5 years but I bet it'll be more. That's $1200 a year, not counting what they earn doing laundry or making license plates. State or Club Fed should they get the latter, that's not much of an income at least for most of us. Maybe that's good money for you.

    That doesn't mean they get to keep the 6 grand. They may be required to make full restitution or that may be forgiven as money already spent with the bulk returned. We won't know what's what without a lot more info. 
    tyler82watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 9
    timatima Posts: 8member
    fred1 said:
    fred1 said:
    He admits to taking 17 million and has to give back 5? Who says crime doesn’t pay? And he’ll probably be out of jail in five years for admitting to the crime. Murderers get less time.

    The article states that there were three people involved. 17M between three people is 5.66M each so 5M is closer to being correct than you thought..
    So they only keep 6 grand each. Not so bad. 
    Wouldn't that be more like $600K for each since $5.66M is $5,660,000 not $5,006,600.

    jcs2305zeus423danoxwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 9
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    I don’t get how this happens in a large company like Apple.  In all the large companies I worked for (and all smaller than Apple), there were many levels of approval needed both before acquisition of goods or services and to approve payment.  Any goods we purchased required three quotes.  Accounts Payable would not process an invoice for more than the purchase order price without written explanations and additional approvals.  

    It wasn’t impossible to defraud, but not at these kinds of levels.   There was a guy before me who did get caught taking kickbacks.  I replaced him, but I was unaware of his fraud until I started cleaning out old paperwork and discovered we had been overcharged for certain equipment.  Then they told me why he was fired.  
    Hedwaretyler82watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 9
    mac_dogmac_dog Posts: 1,069member
    fred1 said:
    He admits to taking 17 million and has to give back 5? Who says crime doesn’t pay? And he’ll probably be out of jail in five years for admitting to the crime. Murderers get less time.
    Wrong. White collar criminals get less time. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 9
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,869member
    mac_dog said:
    fred1 said:
    He admits to taking 17 million and has to give back 5? Who says crime doesn’t pay? And he’ll probably be out of jail in five years for admitting to the crime. Murderers get less time.
    Wrong. White collar criminals get less time. 
    It’s considered a gentleman’s (gentry) crime, similar to prince Andrew…. Eastenders’s will always get the boot.
    watto_cobra
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