Former Apple Buyer Sentenced to Prison for $17 Million Fraud

A former Apple buyer has been sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding the company of $17 million.

Dhirendra Prasad of Mountain House, California, who was a buyer in Apple’s Global Service Supply Chain, was also ordered to pay over $19 million in restitution to Apple and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the fraud and related tax crimes, the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California said in a Wednesday (April 26) press release.

Prasad pleaded guilty in November 2022 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and one count of tax evasion, according to the release.

The criminal conduct took place between December 2008 and December 2018 while Prasad was employed by Apple to help the company buy parts it used to perform warranty repairs on older devices, the release said.

“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 lot to Apple of more than $17,000,000,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the release.

The release added that Prasad engaged in two separate criminal conspiracies with vendors and evaded tax on the proceeds of his schemes.

The government’s sentencing memorandum also said that Prasad had been given substantial discretion to make decisions, enriched himself at his employer’s expense while accepting salary and bonuses, and used his insider knowledge of Apple’s fraud-detection techniques to further his efforts, the release said.

In other recent fraud-related news, PYMNTS reported Wednesday (April 26) that business email compromise (BEC) attacks remain one of the most effective ploys fraudsters use, with the FBI estimating that United States businesses lost $2.4 billion to such schemes.

In addition, most surveyed financial institution executives have said they are seeing more fraud.

Sixty-two percent said the volume of fraudulent transactions has increased, 59% said the overall fraud rate is up and 58% said the dollar cost of these crimes has risen, according to “The State of Fraud and Financial Crime in the U.S.,” a PYMNTS and Featurespace collaboration.