topic Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager... in Community Chat

Feds Indict QVC Manager...

BlueTopazGem — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:30:31 GMT

Feds Indict QVC manager for Allegedly Being Ringleader in a Nearly $2 Million Bogus Invoice Scheme

FYI:

This article appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer today:

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20150925_Feds_indict_QVC_manager_for_allegedly_being_ringleader_in_a_nearly__2_million_bogus_invoice_scheme.html

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

Buck-i-Nana — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:38:19 GMT

a studio Lighting Manager and QVC was actually the victim. Your post, as well as the headline of the linked article, sure are sensationalized to make it appear that perhaps QVC cutomers were the victims.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

hoosieroriginal — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:38:22 GMT

Companies let their guard down - I worked for a law firm that had not one, but two office managers who embezzled from the company. Soon after the second incident, one of the attorneys personally signed every check that left the place. It's easily done.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

NoelSeven — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:43:31 GMT

It doesn't sound like he was a part of the Q, he was trying to defraud them and he got caught:

"Douglas S. Rae, a 58-year-old Bethlehem man, faces 20 years in prison, an $8.75 million fine and paying full restitutiton on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, federal prosecutors say in court documets filed last week.

Rae submitted fake invoices to QVC through two companies he controlled, Lighting Equipment Sales and Service Inc. and Lighting Products International Inc., according to the indictment."

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

NoelSeven — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:44:37 GMT

@Buck-i-Nana wrote:
a studio Lighting Manager and QVC was actually the victim. Your post, as well as the headline of the linked article, sure are sensationalized to make it appear that perhaps QVC cutomers were the victims.

******************************

I thought it sounded like that, also.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

ROMARY — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:48:54 GMT

There's always someone somewhere doing not-so-nice things..........Wish people like that would listen to the Pope and other folks who demonstrate/are good examples.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

Puppy Lips — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 18:57:25 GMT

@NoelSeven wrote:

It doesn't sound like he was a part of the Q, he was trying to defraud them and he got caught:

"Douglas S. Rae, a 58-year-old Bethlehem man, faces 20 years in prison, an $8.75 million fine and paying full restitutiton on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, federal prosecutors say in court documets filed last week.

Rae submitted fake invoices to QVC through two companies he controlled, Lighting Equipment Sales and Service Inc. and Lighting Products International Inc., according to the indictment."

It states at the end of the article that he was employed by QVC from 1997 to 2013. He certainly could work there and have other supply businesses as well. So he was gettng a paycheck from QVC, as well as supposedly "selling" them equipment from his other companies and getting paid from that too. Anytime there is fraud in a company, their customers can indeed be affected in the way of higher prices to support their operating expenses, whether they were legitimate or not. QVC let this guy go unchecked for far too long.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

howwhatwhen — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:07:59 GMT

@Puppy Lips wrote:
@NoelSeven wrote:

It doesn't sound like he was a part of the Q, he was trying to defraud them and he got caught:

"Douglas S. Rae, a 58-year-old Bethlehem man, faces 20 years in prison, an $8.75 million fine and paying full restitutiton on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, federal prosecutors say in court documets filed last week.

Rae submitted fake invoices to QVC through two companies he controlled, Lighting Equipment Sales and Service Inc. and Lighting Products International Inc., according to the indictment."

It states at the end of the article that he was employed by QVC from 1997 to 2013. He certainly could work there and have other supply businesses as well. So he was gettng a paycheck from QVC, as well as supposedly "selling" them equipment from his other companies and getting paid from that too. Anytime there is fraud in a company, their customers can indeed be affected in the way of higher prices to support their operating expenses, whether they were legitimate or not. QVC let this guy go unchecked for far too long.

My thoughts exactly yet the Q will track customers purchases with such a fine toothcomb and should you return too may items they'll send you the "letter" all while getting "taken" by one of their own for years, lol

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

ValuSkr — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:08:12 GMT

Interesting. The fraud was perpetrated on QVC itself, not on Q customers. As I undertand it, he was a Q manager who directed Q business to personal friends or companies in which he had a financial interest. Those friends and companies submitted bogus invoices, he signed off on them as a Q employee, and Q paid the invoices. Companies usually have internal controls and policies to prevent this sort of thing, but circumvention happens. It's embarassing for the company, which may be discouraged from prosecuting due to ensuing publicity (like this article). Yet it's important to prosecute for no other reason than to let employees know this kind of behavior isn't tolerated.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

Lotus — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:36:49 GMT

@ValuSkr wrote:
Interesting. The fraud was perpetrated on QVC itself, not on Q customers. As I undertand it, he was a Q manager who directed Q business to personal friends or companies in which he had a financial interest. Those friends and companies submitted bogus invoices, he signed off on them as a Q employee, and Q paid the invoices. Companies usually have internal controls and policies to prevent this sort of thing, but circumvention happens. It's embarassing for the company, which may be discouraged from prosecuting due to ensuing publicity (like this article). Yet it's important to prosecute for no other reason than to let employees know this kind of behavior isn't tolerated.

It ultimately trickles down to the customer.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

SharkE — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:38:05 GMT

poof

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

ROMARY — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:45:54 GMT

What's wrong with people? Surely he had to know that he would be eventually caught. Or, maybe not. Just maybe his arrogance over-took his common sense.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

MaggieMack — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:47:54 GMT

Of course this theft impacted the ultimate cost of items QVC sells. Which are the items we buy. Probably not too noticeable to us, but it's in there. What gets me is that how a company this large doesn't have multiple layers of safeguards against employee embezzlement. Would like to be a fly on the wall at the next board meeting!

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

KingstonsMom — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 20:15:37 GMT

@MaggieMack

So true!

I remember years ago during one of the big jewelry shows, LR mentioned the fact that they had guards standing around the set, to make sure everything was accounted for after the shows.

Just like you'd think a multi-billion $$$ organization that sells in multiple countries, would have the most jam-up IT Team that money could buy......but they don't.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

Buck-i-Nana — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 20:42:33 GMT

@MaggieMack wrote:
Of course this theft impacted the ultimate cost of items QVC sells. Which are the items we buy. Probably not too noticeable to us, but it's in there. What gets me is that how a company this large doesn't have multiple layers of safeguards against employee embezzlement. Would like to be a fly on the wall at the next board meeting!

You don't know that they didn't, and that this guy was able to circumvent all the safe-guards. It's just like anything else, it's constantly evolving. Whether it's this type of crime or cyber theft and computer viruses, the criminals view it as a profitable challenge and the protection fails now and then until the new threat is identified and the protection efforts reworked to meet the new threats.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

MaggieMack — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 20:57:24 GMT

@Buck-i-Nana wrote:
@MaggieMack wrote:
Of course this theft impacted the ultimate cost of items QVC sells. Which are the items we buy. Probably not too noticeable to us, but it's in there. What gets me is that how a company this large doesn't have multiple layers of safeguards against employee embezzlement. Would like to be a fly on the wall at the next board meeting!
You don't know that they didn't, and that this guy was able to circumvent all the safe-guards. It's just like anything else, it's constantly evolving. Whether it's this type of crime or cyber theft and computer viruses, the criminals view it as a profitable challenge and the protection fails now and then until the new threat is identified and the protection efforts reworked to meet the new threats.

Well, of course, nobody KNOWS yet, the auditors will untangle it. My best guess is that this will turn out to be one of those things, a cult of personality, where everybody liked this guy. It happened in a company where I worked directly under a guy who ultimately stole around $10M. I tried to warn the board that something was going on, all docs, and NOone wanted to listen to me because he was so well liked. So I quit. Fourteen years later, he was still there, embezzling his little heart out, when a sharp bank teller thought something was fishy. Turned him in to the FBI since it involved Medicare $$$. He eventually pled guilty, had to repay $5M, and got sentenced to a cushy federal prison for only three years. It was one of the circumstances in my life that confirmed my belief in karma, and proved that the wheels of justice do turn, albeit ever so slowly.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

millieshops — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 20:57:54 GMT

I do not click on links, so I thank all who explained how misleading this post is.

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

Nancy Drew — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 22:24:22 GMT

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

Ladybug724 — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 22:54:05 GMT

@Jackaranda wrote:
The OP took the time to post a new topic. Which everyone complains that it is the stale old topics over and over again. She stated the topic her way and I was intrigued to open it. Nit picking can keep posters away also.

And now it's fun again!!! Yay!!!

Re: Feds Indict QVC Manager...

Nancy Drew — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 23:08:32 GMT