A former Amazon operations manager led the scheme – causing millions to flow into her and co-conspirators’ bank accounts – and a loss prevention worker took part in it, according to prosecutors. Both worked at an Amazon warehouse in Smyrna, Georgia, a small city 15 miles northwest of Atlanta.
“This staggering fraud was fueled by pure greed, as evidenced by the high-end real estate, luxury cars, and expensive jewellery that the defendants quickly accumulated,” US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement. “To me, it’s a sad case because she is a young and talented woman,” Lotito added. “I’m sorry she’s involved.”
The scheme involved her creating fake vendors and submitting “more than US$10mil in fictitious invoices for those vendors, causing Amazon to transfer approximately US$9.4mil to bank accounts controlled by her and her co-conspirators,” court documents state. “These invoices falsely represented that the fake vendors had provided goods and services to Amazon,” the release said.
The former loss prevention worker will forfeit a motorcycle, a Mustang, a Rolex, a diamond necklace, a diamond bracelet and more that he bought with the stolen money, according to prosecutors. He will also forfeit more than US$600,000 .