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It's likely in financial crimes that if you were able to profit further from your fraud, you need to pay that back too. Given how most assets and financial records can be tracked down, they saw what happened to the money. 2008 thru 2018 and even today has seen massive stock market gains. If he invested that $17 million and it grew, the investigators can probably see that. They can calculate his gains off of stolen assets and that's likely how they determined the penalties on top of the $17 million principal he must return.

Letting him steal $17 million and keep the gains but return the principal would be too good to be true, so that's likely where it comes from. And they probably already audited his finances to death to know what he can and cannot pay.

If you cannot pay it back, then you may declare bankruptcy likely and that's not a pretty picture in the US at least especially if you were at least a moderately successful employee at Apple.

Plot twist: He invested it all in Apple stock. </s>
 
My guess is he did this because he saw other people do it, too. And I'd also make an educated guess he never intend to get it so "big" when he started siphoning off a bit of money here and there.

The problem with these kinds of scam is that you can't just stop. In his case, he had co-conspirators at the suppliers who could always threaten to expose him. And they certainly didn't want to stop the flow of extra money, either.

This is also why these people rarely go on vacation. Their scheme would unravel quickly.

There's a famous case here in Switzerland from almost two decades ago, where a bank-employee funneled millions into a local 3rd-rate soccer-club. He was a "model-employee", always working late, rarely going on vacation....

I know somebody who still works at that bank and he told us years ago that the mentality is always the same:
"Take what you can, while you can, because that's what those at the top do all the time".
 
These cases are always very interesting to me. If I committed a crime and stole $17 million... I can totally understand court saying I had to pay the money back. And maybe if I'm frugal I've still got a bunch of that $17m left. But then telling me I need to pay another $13.5m + $1.8m... Ok, so I don't know how many scams he's got going. But if it was me, I definitely wouldn't be able to pay anybody even $1m. Does the court actually have the lively expectation he'll be able to pay these moneys?
This is often used in case a person sells his story or writes a book based on their crime. The profits of such efforts would go toward restitution instead of the criminal.
 
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Apple has taken on world governmental departments and won, they have taken on some of the worlds biggest companies and won, they have taken on the FBI and won. This is a company who have probably some of the best lawyers in the world on their books. Did this employee honestly think he was going to get away with it??.

side note: Yes it must also be known that Apple have lost on numerous occasions as well.
 
It's likely in financial crimes that if you were able to profit further from your fraud, you need to pay that back too. Given how most assets and financial records can be tracked down, they saw what happened to the money. 2008 thru 2018 and even today has seen massive stock market gains. If he invested that $17 million and it grew, the investigators can probably see that. They can calculate his gains off of stolen assets and that's likely how they determined the penalties on top of the $17 million principal he must return.

Letting him steal $17 million and keep the gains but return the principal would be too good to be true, so that's likely where it comes from. And they probably already audited his finances to death to know what he can and cannot pay.

If you cannot pay it back, then you may declare bankruptcy likely and that's not a pretty picture in the US at least especially if you were at least a moderately successful employee at Apple.
I'd agree but, bankruptcy doesn't get rid of Restitution...
 
He's getting off too lightly. Should've been closer to the 20-25 years.
When people say things like this, I have to imagine that their own lives are not fulfilling enough to think that 3 years locked up isn't a very long time. It's a very long time to be away from friends, family, and the people and things I enjoy doing. The people who argue for long prison sentences should cultivate more interests and better spend the limited time they have here on earth. They certainly don't seem to value it.
 
“The $13.5 million forfeiture is on top of the $17 million that he must pay to Apple and the $1.8 million he owes to the IRS for not paying taxes on the money he received from Apple.”

So the IRS still gets paid for the money he made from the stolen Apple components that were sold back to Apple?
Yes. In the U.S., you owe income taxes on nearly all income, including illegal income. This is how income tax should work, BTW -- it makes no sense to carve out illegally-acquired income.
 
When people say things like this, I have to imagine that their own lives are not fulfilling enough to think that 3 years locked up isn't a very long time. It's a very long time to be away from friends, family, and the people and things I enjoy doing. The people who argue for long prison sentences should cultivate more interests and better spend the limited time they have here on earth. They certainly don't seem to value it.
Yes, this sentence seems spot-on to me. He has to pay back a hell of a lot of money, which means we will realize no net benefit from his schemes, and he will lose three years of his life. This is all in addition to a criminal record that will follow him forever. If it's possible for this person to learn his lesson (maybe, maybe not), this is a sentence harsh enough and long enough to give him that opportunity.
 
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When people say things like this, I have to imagine that their own lives are not fulfilling enough to think that 3 years locked up isn't a very long time. It's a very long time to be away from friends, family, and the people and things I enjoy doing. The people who argue for long prison sentences should cultivate more interests and better spend the limited time they have here on earth. They certainly don't seem to value it.
Three years instead of 20-25 is a pittance. And again, petty criminals would not get off so easily. His scheme ran at least seven years. Netted at least $17M. Him simply paying back what he stole is not what petty criminals would get as punishment. And he's likely to go to a pretty decent prison that won't resemble what the average criminal has to live in. He got off easy for someone that was very foolish and extremely selfish.
 
And yet it took seven years to notice. Not condoning what he did, but clearly there were issues with the processes he was able to exploit for longer than any accountant or auditor would like.
they trust employees to do the right thing, if they start loosing trust in employees then they will put so many procedures and approvals, it will be pain to get anything done, this will increase bureaucracy.
 
They really threw the book at him. But Apple gets away with union busting. This system is messed up
 
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I suspect Apple knew he was a bad actor long before they put a stop to it. Apple would need to verify how the scam worked and the other people/companies involved in it.
 
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Then it is a life sentence, that goes beyond just punishing a man for his non-violent crime of stealing money from his company and BTW $17 millions are just decimals that are rounded in Apple's financials so absolutely irrelevant for them. Should he return the money with interest to Apple? Definitely! Should he get some period in prison to rethink his behavior in society? Definitely! Should he be financially incapacitated for the rest of his life with a criminal record that would follow him until he dies? Not really.

People like these should be given a second opportunity, especially when we talk about non-violent crimes that definitely did ruin anyone's life.

One thing is stealing all life-savings from normal people changing the their life forever, and completely different is scaming a large corporation that did not even notice that a few millions are being stolen/misused for several years. The actual harm you are doing is just incomparable.

Obviously, justice was not served IMO. Hope he could appeal and get a more reasonable punishment. US justice system is broken.
While I would tend to agree with you. Your second chance has been a failure. Does not work. We need to fix first offenders. If they get a pass, second chance, what is the incentive for change. In this case, I went out stole 17 million and got a talking too. That was easy. Let’s try for 34 million. The second concept, the victim is still a victim. Does not matter their financial status, business or private. Your thought, have a nice portfolio, this guy would get a take my money pass because of ones financial status. The laws do not work that way and they should not. Need more focus on first offenders, not less.
 
i worked with a guy who fell asleep with a lit cigarette and burned down an entire apartment complex he was renting. He bounced from job to job and left as soon as they found out where he worked. Would take him the rest of his life to pay it back and garnished 40% of his paychecks. Finally ended his life since he couldn't even climb out of that debt or have a beyond-basic-living.
 
While I would tend to agree with you. Your second chance has been a failure. Does not work. We need to fix first offenders. If they get a pass, second chance, what is the incentive for change. In this case, I went out stole 17 million and got a talking too. That was easy. Let’s try for 34 million. The second concept, the victim is still a victim. Does not matter their financial status, business or private. Your thought, have a nice portfolio, this guy would get a take my money pass because of ones financial status. The laws do not work that way and they should not. Need more focus on first offenders, not less.
When I say "second chance", and don't mean do not punish this guy with returning the money and getting some jail time, because it is what he deserve at the end of the day. What I mean is do no screw this guy for the rest of his days on earth for his non-violent crime. If on top of jail time, and returning the money, you are also make him pay Apple a few millions $ as a compensation, you basically kill this guy financially, and with a criminal record, he won't be able to find a decent job even to make some sort of basic living, let alone earn the the money to pay Apple. Bottom line is that, this guy is financially killed and Apple probably won't see a dime on top of what already has been confiscated.
 
This guy is the reason you no longer get a charger in the box.
 
When I say "second chance", and don't mean do not punish this guy with returning the money and getting some jail time, because it is what he deserve at the end of the day. What I mean is do no screw this guy for the rest of his days on earth for his non-violent crime. If on top of jail time, and returning the money, you are also make him pay Apple a few millions $ as a compensation, you basically kill this guy financially, and with a criminal record, he won't be able to find a decent job even to make some sort of basic living, let alone earn the the money to pay Apple. Bottom line is that, this guy is financially killed and Apple probably won't see a dime on top of what already has been confiscated.
He deserves it.
 
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