Former Apple employee Dhirendra Prasad this week pled guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States after stealing more than $17 million from Apple through mail and wire fraud schemes.
According to the Northern California District Attorney's office, Prasad worked for a ten-year period between 2008 and 2018. He was in the Global Service Supply Chain department, buying parts and services for Apple from vendors.
Starting in 2011, Prasad began accepting kickbacks, inflating invoices, and stealing parts, which resulted in Apple paying for items and services that it did not receive. Prasad worked with two Apple vendors, Robert Gary Hansen and Don M. Baker, to steal money.
In 2013, for example, Prasad had motherboards shipped from Apple's inventory to Baker's company, CTrends. Baker had the components from the motherboards harvested, with Prasad arranging purchase orders for the harvested components so that Apple paid for parts it already owned. The two split the funds from the arrangement.
In 2016, Prasad had components shipped from Apple to Hansen's business, Quality Electronics Distributors, Inc. Hansen intercepted the components, put then in new packaging, shipped them back to Apple's warehouse, and charged Apple for it through Prasad.
Prasad also funneled illicit payments from Hansen to his creditors, and he also created a shell company to send sham invoices to CTrends to hide illicit payments and to allow Baker to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars of unjustified tax deductions.
Prasad could spend up to 25 years in prison after he is sentenced, with the hearing set to take place in March 2023. He also must forfeit $5 million in assets that he gained from the schemes.
