Former Amazon employee sentenced to 16 years jail for $10 million fraud

A former Amazon operations manager, known as the "mastermind" behind a fraudulent scheme that resulted in the theft of nearly $10 million from the company, has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison, announced prosecutors.

According to the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, she is now obligated to pay $9,469,731 in restitution to Amazon. The woman, who worked at an Amazon warehouse in Smyrna, Georgia, recruited several individuals, including an Amazon loss prevention employee and a senior human resources assistant, in a scheme that involved her friend's assistance in stealing over $9.4 million.

Prosecutors revealed that she and her friend indulged in a spending spree with the stolen funds, purchasing a luxurious home valued at almost $1 million in Smyrna, Georgia, as well as several high-end vehicles, including a Lamborghini, Porsche and Tesla. The former Amazon manager, hailing from Atlanta, has now been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison by a judge, as stated in a news release from the US attorney's office on July 5. US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan condemned her actions, stating, "The defendant abused her position of trust at Amazon to steal nearly $10 million from the company based on a brazen fraud scheme involving fake vendors and fictitious invoices."

Prosecutors revealed that over $2.7 million from her bank accounts has been seized as part of her sentencing. Furthermore, the assets acquired through the fraudulent scheme, including the Smyrna home, a 2019 Lamborghini Urus, a 2021 Dodge Durango, a 2022 Tesla Model X, a 2018 Porsche Panamera, and a Kawasaki ZX636 motorcycle, have all been forfeited, according to prosecutors.

Court records indicate that the woman chose to defend herself in the case after her two attorneys were terminated on February 17, and as of July 6, no contact information for her has been provided. Meanwhile, charges against her and her friend, both residents of Atlanta, are still pending, as they stand accused of forging a federal judge's signature while on bond in January in an attempt to finalise a deal to open a hookah lounge in Midtown Atlanta.

The details of the fraud scheme unfolded during the former manager's tenure at Amazon, spanning from August 2020 to March 2022. Her role involved approving new vendors for the company and ensuring the payment of vendor invoices. The scheme involved the creation of fake vendors and the submission of over $10 million in fictitious invoices, resulting in the transfer of approximately $9.4 million to bank accounts controlled by the manager and her co-conspirators, according to court documents.

Officials stated that unsuspecting Amazon employees, working under the manager's supervision, were directed to enter false vendor information into the company's system. The Amazon loss prevention worker and senior HR assistant involved in the scheme provided names and Social Security numbers for fake vendor accounts, further corroborating the allegations. Subsequently, the manager approved the fake invoices, which were sent to Amazon for payment, falsely claiming that the vendors had provided goods and services. The woman's girlfriend is accused of assisting in the submission of the fraudulent invoices, leveraging her business, Legend Express LLC, which contracted with Amazon for package deliveries.