From the AP:
SAN JOSE (AP) – A Ferrari-driving vice president of Fry’s Electronics Inc. who was allegedly such a heavyweight gambler that casinos chartered private planes to fly him to Las Vegas has been arrested on charges he embezzled more than $65 million from the retailer to fuel his lavish lifestyle and pay off debts.Ausaf Umar Siddiqui is accused by the IRS of concocting an incredibly profitable scheme in which he cut side deals with some of Fry’s suppliers, buying their goods at higher prices than they would normally get, and buying more of them than he normally would, in exchange for kickbacks of up to 31 percent of the total sales price.
Fry’s Exec Accused In $65M Embezzlement Scheme [CBS5.com/AP]
Finally, some old fashioned embezzlement. Sort of quaint, in this era.
Man, this industry is more fraught with corruption than I thought.
A family member lost a job to embezzlement, as the executives of their employer finally drove what had been a pretty damn respectable west coast computer parts and service company into insolvency (and fled to extradition-resistant China with their savings), Nvidia and ATI reaped god knows how much illicit money with price fixing… and now Fry’s, too?
Now that companies aren’t making these huge profits, there’s going to be a windfall of people getting busted for stealing from their own companies. It was a lot easier to hide money when it was everywhere, but now shits going to hit the fan for a lot of people that thought they were untouchable. Bring it.
The depressing litany of Kleptocracy becoming an inescapable concept.
It appears that honesty is an obsolete meme.
Thus we may soon see a new sort of newsworthy event.
The rare case of someone not abusing a position.
Socialist realism, perhaps?
Maybe art nouveau?
Or maybe just drunk-tank pink with a Hello Kitty theme instead. I’m sure he’s tired of the above from visiting his stores.
For those who’ve actually shopped at a Fry’s – Perhaps he can have a nice exciting themed prison cell.
Is this the guy who has the pimped out 747?
http://tinyurl.com/9t8vxj
And a similar story about someone pulling a similar embezzlement scheme against Best Buy in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune:
http://www.startribune.com/business/36711039.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ
The truly amazing thing about stories like this is that anyone thinks this is any different from most business transactions. Perks and bonuses from your suppliers as “retention” are standard practice.
Noooooooo! Frys is like my supermarket for computer parts! i grew up with frys electronics! i hope the company doesnt go under because of this, i mean where else can i buy astronauts dehydrated ice cream, purchase a documentary video, buy technical books while looking for that odd looking RCA cable adpter while purchasing a hand crank rechargable flashlight while in the motherboard isle looking for wifi yagi antennas?