Former Employee Who Defrauded Apple Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison and $19 Million in Fines

Former Apple employee Dhidrenda Prasad was this week sentenced to three years in prison and was ordered to pay more than $17 million in restitution to Apple. Back in November, Prasad pled guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States after stealing millions of dollars from Apple.

Apple Logo Cash Orange
Prasad was part of Apple's Global Service Supply Chain department between 2008 and 2018, and his job was to buy parts and services from vendors for servicing older devices. In 2011, Prasad started accepting kickbacks, inflating invoices, and stealing parts, causing Apple to pay for components and services that it did not receive.

Two vendors worked with Prasad to steal money from Apple. His schemes included funneling illicit payments from the vendors to his creditors, tricking Apple into paying for components twice, and stealing components purchased by Apple and reselling them to Apple through his co-conspirators. In total, he was found guilty of stealing $17 million through mail and wire fraud.

He will forfeit nearly $5.5 million in assets that the government has already seized, and will need to pay an additional $8 million in forfeiture money. The $13.5 million forfeiture is on top of the $17 million that he must pay to Apple and the $1.8 million he owes to the IRS for not paying taxes on the money he received from Apple.

After serving three years in prison, he will have another three years of supervised release.

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Shows Off a Key Reason to Upgrade to the iPhone 17

Saturday February 7, 2026 9:26 am PST by
Apple today shared an ad that shows how the upgraded Center Stage front camera on the latest iPhones improves the process of taking a group selfie. "Watch how the new front facing camera on iPhone 17 Pro takes group selfies that automatically expand and rotate as more people come into frame," says Apple. While the ad is focused on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, the regular iPhone...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

Apple Says These 7 U.S. States Plan to Offer iPhone Driver's Licenses

Monday February 9, 2026 6:24 am PST by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Apple Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, and then use it to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. The feature is currently available in 13 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, and it is expected to launch in at least seven more in the future. To set up the...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New MacBook Pros Could Now Arrive in March

Sunday February 8, 2026 6:02 am PST by
New MacBook Pro models with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips could arrive as soon as Monday, March 2, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In today's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that the release of new MacBook Pro models is tied to the release of macOS Tahoe 26.3. The launch is said to be slated for as early as the week of March 2. He added that the M4 Pro and M4 Max models on sale today...
Apple Logo Zoomed

Apple Expected to Launch These 10+ Products Over the Coming Months

Tuesday February 10, 2026 6:33 am PST by
It has been a slow start to 2026 for Apple product launches, with only a new AirTag and a special Apple Watch band released so far. We are still waiting for MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the iPhone 17e, a lower-cost MacBook with an iPhone chip, long-rumored updates to the Apple TV and HomePod mini, and much more. Apple is expected to release/update the following products...
wwdc sans text feature

Apple Rumored to Announce New Product on February 19

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:22 pm PST by
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report, citing industry sources, is available in English on Macworld. Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday, February 19 last year, so the iPhone 17e would be unveiled exactly one year later if this rumor is accurate. It is quite uncommon for Apple to unveil...

Top Rated Comments

Mr. Dee Avatar
37 months ago
Greed! You could have built a decent respectable life, but took a shortcut to get millions of dollars without considering the consequences.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fromgophonetoiphone Avatar
37 months ago

These cases are always very interesting to me. If I committed a crime and stole $17 million... I can totally understand court saying I had to pay the money back. And maybe if I'm frugal I've still got a bunch of that $17m left. But then telling me I need to pay another $13.5m + $1.8m... Ok, so I don't know how many scams he's got going. But if it was me, I definitely wouldn't be able to pay anybody even $1m. Does the court actually have the lively expectation he'll be able to pay these moneys?
It's likely in financial crimes that if you were able to profit further from your fraud, you need to pay that back too. Given how most assets and financial records can be tracked down, they saw what happened to the money. 2008 thru 2018 and even today has seen massive stock market gains. If he invested that $17 million and it grew, the investigators can probably see that. They can calculate his gains off of stolen assets and that's likely how they determined the penalties on top of the $17 million principal he must return.

Letting him steal $17 million and keep the gains but return the principal would be too good to be true, so that's likely where it comes from. And they probably already audited his finances to death to know what he can and cannot pay.

If you cannot pay it back, then you may declare bankruptcy likely and that's not a pretty picture in the US at least especially if you were at least a moderately successful employee at Apple.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BGPL Avatar
37 months ago
Defrauding Apple was this guy's first mistake. They are too organized and have a legion of attorneys at their whim. Not to mention Tim's death grip on the purse strings.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
37 months ago
Good news. I always like seeing the bad person get what is coming to them.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
The Cappy Avatar
37 months ago
These cases are always very interesting to me. If I committed a crime and stole $17 million... I can totally understand court saying I had to pay the money back. And maybe if I'm frugal I've still got a bunch of that $17m left. But then telling me I need to pay another $13.5m + $1.8m... Ok, so I don't know how many scams he's got going. But if it was me, I definitely wouldn't be able to pay anybody even $1m. Does the court actually have the lively expectation he'll be able to pay these moneys?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GMShadow Avatar
37 months ago

Defrauding Apple was this guy's first mistake. They are too organized and have a legion of attorneys at their whim. Not to mention Tim's death grip on the purse strings.
And yet it took seven years to notice. Not condoning what he did, but clearly there were issues with the processes he was able to exploit for longer than any accountant or auditor would like.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)