Two Former Amazon Employees Plead Guilty to Defrauding $10 Million from Company

Federal prosecutors announced last Thursday, Dec. 1, that two former Amazon employees pleaded guilty to fraud and stealing $10 million from the company.

Kayricha Wortham and Demetrius Hines were employed in managerial and loss prevention roles at one of Amazon's warehouses when they started to do the illegal scheme.

Abuse of Position

Investigations revealed that the former employees abused their positions to illegally take hold of nearly $10 million from the company over just a few months. Prosecutors in the case made it public that the two purchased high-end real estate, luxury cars, and expensive jewelry from the stolen funds.

Additionally, investigators discovered that the defendants operate their schemes brazenly in plain sight under the guise of their trusted positions at Amazon. But exactly how did they get close to $10 million?

Kayricka Wortham and Demetrius Hines exploited their positions at Amazon.com, Inc. to submit more than $10 million in bogus bills for fake vendors, according to US Attorney Buchanan's report to the federal court. As a result, Amazon paid Wortham, Hines, and their accomplices about $9.4 million in months.

Wortham, the scheme's leader, worked as an operations manager at Amazon from roughly August 2020 to March 2022. She worked in the company warehouse in Smyrna, Georgia, along with Hines and other conspirators. Using her position, Wortham gave false vendor information to unsuspecting colleagues and requested them to enter it into Amazon's vendor system.

After documenting the information, Wortham approved the bogus merchants, allowing those vendor accounts to submit bills to Amazon. After that, Wortham and her co-conspirators, including Hines, submitted fraudulent invoices for payment.

Meanwhile, Hines worked for Amazon as a loss prevention multi-site lead. At Amazon, Hines was responsible for preventing losses, monitoring security risks, and protecting people, products, and information.

Sanctions

According to Yahoo, Wortham and Hines will lose cash and property acquired using the stolen money as part of their sentence.

For Wortham, this includes a Smyrna home worth over $900,000, a 2019 Lamborghini Urus, a 2021 Dodge Durango, a 2022 Tesla Model X, a 2018 Porsche Panamera, and a Kawasaki ZX636 motorbike.

Along with a 2022 Suzuki GSX1300 motorcycle, a 2013 Ford Shelby Mustang, a 2021 Ford F-150 Black Widow, a Rolex Day-Date watch, a diamond bracelet, and a diamond necklace, Hines will forfeit more than $600,000.

Charges of conspiracy to conduct wire fraud have also been brought against another former employee named Brittany Hudson. According to the criminal information, Hudson and Wortham were partners in their own company, Legend Express LLC.

The said company had a contract with Amazon to deliver products to consumers. As part of the scheme, Hudson is accused of working with Wortham to submit bogus invoices to pretend vendors. Her case is still pending.

"The defendants ultimately learned that the highly skilled investigators with the Secret Service are uniquely proficient in their work to uncover illicit financial schemes, regardless of attempts to evade law enforcement," U.S. Secret Service Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Steven Baisel, said in a news release.