Former Apple employee Dhidrenda Prasad has been sentenced to three years in prison, while also being ordered to pay more than $17 million in restitution to Apple. Prasad pled guilty to committing fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States after stealing millions of dollars from Apple.
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.
Prasad was originally charged with fraud in March 2022, with prosecutors saying he had obtained kickbacks, and made Apple pay for undelivered goods and services. It was claimed that he defrauded the company out of $10 million during his ten-year employment term from 2008.
Apple fired Prasad in December 2018. He had worked with the company for over ten years.
Prasad plead guilty to the charges and admitted to over $17 million in a written plea statement. His statement said that he began defrauding Apple in 2011 with schemes including inflating invoices.
Prasad did not commit the crimes alone, he worked with two co-conspirators, Robert Gary Hansen and Don M. Baker, who have both been charged and admitted their involvement.
In addition to the three-year prison sentence, Judge Freeman ordered Prasad to forfeit over $5,491,713 worth of assets—that already have been seized by the government—and to pay an additional forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $8,133,005. The Judge also entered an order of restitution, requiring Prasad to pay $17,398,104 to Apple and $1,872,579 to the IRS, and also ordered Prasad to serve three years of supervised release, to begin after the prison term.
