topic Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement in Community Chat

Wow! QVC Embezzlement

BornToShop — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 21:37:09 GMT

Man Pleads to Stealing $1.8M From QVC Shopping Network

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA — Sep 13, 2016, 4:00 PM ET

A man who spent several years as the lighting manager for online and TV shopping network QVC has pleaded guilty to stealing about $1.8 million from the company.

Douglas Rae pleaded guilty to stealing from the West Chester-based QVC Inc. by submitting bogus invoices from two lighting companies he controlled from 2006 to 2013.

Rae, of Bethlehem, also acknowledged funneling other phony invoices to QVC through two other people who already have pleaded guilty: John Hodde, of Aubrey, Texas, and Michael Keppler, of Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Hodde and Keppler also were QVC vendors. They will be sentenced next month on wire fraud charges for working with Rae to supply other invoices for phony purchases that QVC paid.

Rae split the money with those men, who were prepared to testify against him before he decided to plead guilty Monday instead of going to trial.

Rae used some of the money to buy jewelry and yacht and golf club memberships. He rang up $83,000 in restaurant tabs and other lavish spending, including vacation homes in the Pocono Mountains and in Hilton Head, South Carolina, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia said.

His attorney said it was the "right decision" for him to take a plea.

"If he went to trial and was convicted, the amount of years he was facing was staggering compared to what ultimately can be worked out if he enters a plea and accepts responsibility," attorney John Waldron said, noting the evidence against him was overwhelming.

Rae pleaded guilty to several charges, including fraud and money laundering, which carry a maximum combined sentence of 130 years in prison and fines up to $1.75 million.

The sentence, to be handed down Dec. 12, will be driven by guidelines that take into account Rae's criminal history, if any, the amount of money stolen and other factors to be determined by a pre-sentence investigation.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Mz iMac — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 21:52:37 GMT

"Hodde and Keppler also were QVC vendors."

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

MyGirlsMom — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 21:52:59 GMT

Wow, another one??? There was case back in 2008/09 too.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

blackhole99 — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 21:53:54 GMT

A drop in the bucket for the Q, that's probably why it took so long for them to catch on.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

scotnovel — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 21:55:01 GMT

They need to shore up some of their accounting controls especially regarding verifying the existence of vendors. However, it is very difficult for internal and external auditors to uncover this kind of theft especially when there is collusion between multiple persons and actual vendors.

My ex accidentally uncovered a similar scheme at a company that he worked for a few years ago. He was in charge of coordinating special events but his boss was in charge of approving the invoices. The final payments for events was not something that my ex had access to. He happened to see a listing of some of the paid vendors for an event and realized there were two vendors listed for some rentals but he knew that only one had been used. He did some semi secret investigation and it turned out his boss was setting up fake vendors, approving the invoices essentially paying himself. In that case all the company needed to do was make sure the person in charge of hiring the vendors and coordinating the event also reviewed the final payments which were still approved by a different person.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Noel7 — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 21:55:29 GMT

Haven't we heard this before, and I think it was a lighting guy.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

BornToShop — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 21:55:48 GMT

Hopefully QVC will now have to offer more easy-pays to recoup that unfortunate heist! Why do people get so arrogant & stupid?!?

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

millieshops — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 22:06:53 GMT

@blackhole99The total isn't a drop in the bucket even for a company of QVC's size, but that embezzlement probably went on for a long time and each individual theft was your drop in the bucket.

Sad to say many embezzlers are the very people companies hire to do their books, and too many of those people don't have the personal integrity to resist the temptation to steal. And they think they are so clever that they will never get caught.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Noel7 — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 22:13:17 GMT

I thought I remembered this story. This came out a year ago this month, same guy, I guess when it was first discovered.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Lighting-Manager-TV-Shopping-Network-QVC-Inc-Douglas-Rae-West-Chester-329507351.html

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Q4u — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 23:07:11 GMT

*Sigh* Everywhere you turn..... sure does get old.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Mary Bailey — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 23:12:16 GMT

when they caught on, is that when the shipping charges changed?

customers always pay to recoup, not management (imho) ......

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Tinkrbl44 — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 23:48:10 GMT

That is surprising ..... expect another price hike.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

DCGIRL — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:26:01 GMT

Glad they caught the scumbag - nothing worse than a thief and cheater in the company. No ethics :-(.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Puzzle Piece — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:27:00 GMT

Geez Louise!

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

shell garden — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:31:56 GMT

@Mary Bailey wrote:
when they caught on, is that when the shipping charges changed?
customers always pay to recoup, not management (imho) ......

Sadly, that is true! However, this would definitely make me take my money elsewhere! The prices here at the Q are utterly ridiculous! The Q needs to do some rethinking or they are going to have worse sale records continue quarter after quarter!

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Mominohio — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 14:37:58 GMT

And as others have stated, the company never takes this kind of loss, the customer however, does. Even a few pennies at a time, here and there, we will pay for it.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

pattypeep — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 17:39:19 GMT

This kind is thing makes me want to puke. Think of all the people in this country working their heinies off just to get by and these kind of jerks bilk money out of businesses just to live a lavish life style. Gross !!!!

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

LilacTree — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 17:57:39 GMT

I know of two bookkeepers who embezzled from the small companies they worked for. One carpeted her whole two story home from a deal she made with the vendor. I don't know if she was ever found out since I moved to South Jersey shortly after that. We had been good friends, but I never thought the same of her.

The other did it little by little when she worked for a cemetery company. She was found out, but the business never pressed charges. However, they bad-mouthed her locally and she never got a job in that area again.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Melania — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 18:09:41 GMT

To think they laid off many of their long time local workers too!

Shame on them for not paying attention to what's going on in house or for that matter with their meal ticket...the customer.

Their pricing, quality, service have gone down the tubes for awhile now. Plus they show the same products over and over. I guess they can't attract the vendors like HSN can so we get the reruns and high prices.

I certainly don't want to support this kind of business model, or lack there of.

Re: Wow! QVC Embezzlement

Lipstickdiva — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 20:07:45 GMT

@Melania, that's the first thing that came to my mind. I wonder if that's one of the reasons they laid off so many people.