A former Apple employee has been told that he has to pay Apple $19,270,683 in restitution and spend three years in prison after admitted stealing more than $17 million from the company.
Dhirendra Prasad pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, although two more counts were dismissed during sentencing. Those counts were related to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prasad was a buyer in Apple’s Global Service Supply Chain and abused that position to result in losses of more than $17 million for Apple.
Kickbacks, stolen parts, false invoices, and more
A release by the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California outlines exactly what Prasad got up to. And it doesn't make for great reading. It says that Prasad was employed by Apple from 2008 through 2018.
"It was Prasad’s job as an Apple buyer to facilitate the process through which Apple bought parts to perform warranty repairs on older devices," the release says. "Prasad exploited his position and conspired with two separate Apple vendors to defraud Apple by taking kickbacks, stealing parts, inflating invoices, and causing Apple to pay for items and services it never received – resulting in a loss to Apple of more than $17,000,000." Prasad also evaded tax on his ill-gotten gains while also engaging in other conspiracies with Apple vendors.
It's unclear whether Prasad will ever pay the more than $19 million ordered, but it's said that more than $5,491,713 worth of assets have already been seized.
Even at the price of Apple's very best iPhones, Macs, and other hardware just imagine how much you could buy with the cash this guy stole.
Prasad will also serve three years of supervised release after his prison term, meaning he likely won't so much as be able to go buy a new MacBook Air without telling someone about it.
