Dhirendra Prasad (born March 1970) is a former global supply chain buyer at Apple Inc. He was convicted in federal court for defrauding the company out of over US$17 million.[1][2]
Education[]
Prasad received a B.A. from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.[3]
Career[]
In 2000, Prasad worked as a senior buyer at Solectron and Flextronics. In March 2001, he joined Proxim Wireless, where he worked as a supply base manager. In August 2006, Prasad joined Riverbed Technology in the same role.[3]
Apple Inc.[]
In December 2008, Prasad joined Apple to work as a buyer in their global service supply chain.[4] He was reportedly granted significant autonomy to make decisions to benefit the company, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and bonuses. Prasad also gained insider knowledge of the company's fraud detection methods.[5] However, he was fired by the company in December 2018, according to court documents.[6]
Federal charges and conviction[]
Affluent California real estate allegedly acquired by Prasad with money stolen from Apple.
On March 17, 2022, the U.S. Attorney filed charges with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that Prasad had engaged in conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud from 2013 through January 2019. The charges included: "taking kickbacks, stealing parts, and causing Apple to pay for items and services it never received, resulting in a loss of more than $10,000,000."[4] Prasad was also charged with tax evasion. In September 2021, the federal government filed for forfeiture of $5 million in accounts and assets registered to Prasad.[7] Vendors Don M. Baker and Robert Gary Hansen were separately charged in the Central District of California for conspiring with Prasad in the alleged scheme.[4] In December 2021, Baker and Hansen pled guilty to the charges, though Prasad's case was still pending at the time with arraignment scheduled on March 24, 2022.[6][8]
On November 1, 2022, Prasad pleaded guilty to federal charges of having defrauded Apple of over $17 million. He also agreed to forfeit assets acquired with the proceeds of the fraudulent activity, valued in excess of over $5 million.[2] On April 26, 2023, Prasad was sentenced by U.S. district judge Beth Labson Freeman to 3 years in prison, followed by 3 additional years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay over $19 million in restitution to Apple and the Internal Revenue Service.[9]
References[]
- ↑ Apple employee spent a decade defrauding company of $10M, DOJ says by Tim De Chant, Ars Technica. 2022-03-22.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Former Apple Employee Admits Defrauding Apple Of More Than $17 Million by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, U.S. Department of Justice. 2022-11-01.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dhirendra Prasad at SignalHire. Accessed 2022-06-12.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Former Employee Charged With Defrauding Apple, Money Laundering, And Tax Crimes by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, U.S. Department of Justice. 2022-03-18.
- ↑ Who is Dhirendra Prasad, an Indian-origin man who stole Rs 138 crore from Apple? by Danny D'Cruze, BusinessToday. 2023-05-02.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 U.S. charges former Apple buyer with defrauding more than $10 million from company by Jonathan Stempel, Reuters. 2022-03-21.
- ↑ How do you hide $10 million in dirty Apple money? by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Apple 3.0. 2022-03-19.
- ↑ Former Apple Employee Charged With $10M Fraud by Ian Evenden, Tom's Hardware. 2022-03-21.
- ↑ Former Apple Employee Sentenced To Prison For Conspiracy To Defraud Apple And Tax Crimes by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, U.S. Department of Justice. 2023-04-26.
See also[]
- Gaston Bastiaens, a former Apple executive who was convicted of corporate fraud.
- Jizhong Chen, a former Apple engineer who was charged with theft of trade secrets.
- Paul Devine, a former Apple manager who was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy.
- Gene Levoff, a former Apple attorney who was convicted of securities fraud.
- Weibao Wang, a former Apple engineer who was charged with theft of trade secrets.
- Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple engineer who was convicted of theft of trade secrets.
External links[]
- United States of America v. Dhirendra Prasad (PDF) at the U.S. Department of Justice
