Toys”R”Us Employee Charged With $2M Debit Theft

When retail executives complain about the rising cost of labor, this isn’t usually what they mean.

Reuters reported that a Toys”R”Us employee at a Brooklyn store has been charged with the theft of almost $1.9 million through a debit card scheme. The worker in question, Daniel Chon, worked as the director of inbound and outbound transportation for the store, and federal prosecutors are alleging that he used his position and access to the company’s internal expense system to withdraw funds.

The complaint alleges that Chon made the first illicit foray into Toys”R”Us’ “Fleet Card” system in 2013 and then 116 more times until March 2016. The Fleet Card expense system is meant to provide on-demand funds for meals, hotels and on-the-spot vehicle repairs for Toys”R”Us’ commercial drivers, but Chon was allegedly able to maneuver around this loophole by loading money onto a debit card and withdrawing funds from ATMs around New York City.

However, prosecutors say that they also have data indicating that someone used a Fleet Card to withdraw funds from ATMs in London, Madrid and Berlin last year — dates that supposedly match up with trips Chon took to those cities in 2014.

While not every employee with sticky fingers runs up a $2 million tab, it’s clear that retailers have become more conscious of worker theft — whether it impacts the bottom line or not. Bloomberg reported in early March that Amazon had started a program of publicly shaming fired employees by showing blurred video clips of their crimes to deter current workers. And if this seems draconian, President of LPT Security Consulting Pat Murphy explained that employers as big as Amazon have a good deal of leeway in trying to stem employee theft.

“The types of methods used by warehouses and fulfillment centers are only limited by your imagination and whatever the law allows,” Murphy said.