News Product manager stole $250,000 worth of PC hardware, jailed for three years — perps sold pilfered gear on eBay

[Admin]

A former Chillblast product manager with his accomplice are found guilty of stealing almost $200,000 worth of inventory.

Product manager stole $250,000 worth of PC hardware, jailed for three years — perps sold pilfered gear on eBay : Read more

 

[bit_user]

Even if I pull something out of the trash pile, at work, I would never sell it on ebay. It looks bad, and just isn't worth it.

 

[4745454b]

I wonder what he was making as a manager? Was $30k/yr extra worth that? Getting caught means you want her hired doing anything like that. Not worth it in my book.

 

[kjfatl]

We had something similar happen where I worked. An employee was finally caught on video and had stolen over $250K worth of disk drives. The company, adverse of lawsuits and bad publicity chose to simply fire the individual who moved on to a job as manager of a large auto parts store, responsible for all inventory.
This happened around 2005 in the USA.

 

[bit_user]

An employee was finally caught on video and had stolen over $250K worth of disk drives. The company, adverse of lawsuits and bad publicity chose to simply fire the individual who moved on to a job as manager of a large auto parts store, responsible for all inventory.

What's weird about this is that employers will want to see an employment history and will contact your previous employers to confirm you worked in the role you stated, for the specified dates, and confirm the terms of your departure (layoff, quit, or fired with cause). I'm not sure how much else they're legally allowed to disclose - probably worth looking into!

I guess either the employee didn't list that job on their resume, or the new employer didn't follow up. Not listing a job will leave a large gap in your resume, and employers really don't like those.

IMO, they should've gone for a criminal prosecution. That amount of theft is way too big to overlook, and conviction would leave them with a criminal record. Employers usually do criminal background checks, which would turn up such a conviction.

Remember folks: the cost of theft is placed on the backs of everyone else. If you're honest, it's not in your interest to turn a blind eye to any kind of theft or fraud. If you're dishonest, no crime is harmless or else it wouldn't be a crime.

 

[bit_user]

This happened around 2005 in the USA.

Is the author based in the UK? Just curious, since he's new. The article seems well-written, which I appreciate.

 

[kjfatl]

What's weird about this is that employers will want to see an employment history and will contact your previous employers to confirm you worked in the role you stated, for the specified dates, and confirm the terms of your departure (layoff, quit, or fired with cause). I'm not sure how much else they're legally allowed to disclose - probably worth looking into!

I guess either the employee didn't list that job on their resume, or the new employer didn't follow up. Not listing a job will leave a large gap in your resume, and employers really don't like those.

IMO, they should've gone for a criminal prosecution. That amount of theft is way too big to overlook, and conviction would leave them with a criminal record. Employers usually do criminal background checks, which would turn up such a conviction.

Remember folks: the cost of theft is placed on the backs of everyone else. If you're honest, it's not in your interest to turn a blind eye to any kind of theft or fraud. If you're dishonest, no crime is harmless or else it wouldn't be a crime.

In the US, or at least in Georgia, all an employer can report to another employer is that you worked for them during a particular time and your wages were close to what you told the next employer. Anything else opens up the former employer to law suits. To protect themselves, this is often done through a 3rd party service. In particular, if they report you were let go "with cause" a good lawyer can get make a tidy sum and share it with the former employee.

The former employee was not convicted. The judge threw out the case because it was the first time the employee was caught.

 

[bit_user]

The former employee was not convicted. The judge threw out the case because it was the first time the employee was caught.

That's hard to believe. If I had a specific interest in the matter, I'd delve deeper. If that were the real reason it was dismissed, I'd suspect the judge was bribed or blackmailed.

I think $5k is the threshold for grand larceny. If it were $250, maybe it could be thrown out, but not $250k!

Even $250 - if you walked out of a store with that much merchandise in 2005, you'd have almost certainly gotten slapped with a misdemeanor - not let off clean!

 

[parkerthon]

What's weird about this is that employers will want to see an employment history and will contact your previous employers to confirm you worked in the role you stated, for the specified dates, and confirm the terms of your departure (layoff, quit, or fired with cause). I'm not sure how much else they're legally allowed to disclose - probably worth looking into!

I guess either the employee didn't list that job on their resume, or the new employer didn't follow up. Not listing a job will leave a large gap in your resume, and employers really don't like those.

IMO, they should've gone for a criminal prosecution. That amount of theft is way too big to overlook, and conviction would leave them with a criminal record. Employers usually do criminal background checks, which would turn up such a conviction.

Remember folks: the cost of theft is placed on the backs of everyone else. If you're honest, it's not in your interest to turn a blind eye to any kind of theft or fraud. If you're dishonest, no crime is harmless or else it wouldn't be a crime.

This last part is sadly very much not true especially if you believe in liberty. Many laws are based on warped ideas of governance defined by the few with power that attempt to control individual lives. There are many laws that don’t really prevent harm to anyone especially if you don’t feel things isolated to self harm should be illegal. Theft however is pretty cut and dry. Additionally, as I tell my kids, just because I disagree with a law doesn’t mean I should break or disregard it. There are risks and consequences that are simply not worth it just to prove a point. Laws exist to prevent anarchy and citizens don’t get the luxury to think they don’t apply to them. They have to try and change them.