New Jersey sysadmin gets 5 years for Cisco scam

A former sysadmin who pocketed several million dollars by scamming Cisco's part replacement program has been sentenced to five years in prison by a federal court in New Jersey. Michael Kyereme was a network troubleshooter for the city of Newark between 2002 and 2007, where he was authorized to buy replacement parts from Cisco …

[Herby]

"Former" BOFH

Is anybody a "former" BOFH? I always thought it was a life long calling.

Albeit interrupted by stints in government provided housing, but lifelong none the less.

[Anonymous Coward]

advance exchange

Grrr... It's people like this that make advance exchange hardware tougher to get. Vendors lose their shirt enough times and they end up making it that much harder on the honest guy with a funky router or dying RAID controller (or dodgy kit for my friends on the Reg side of the pond) to get a replacement in time to be useful.

@Herby: I think you hit it right on the head, he's a "former BOFH" just like prisons are filled with "former drug dealers".

...speaking of BOFH, what the hell, where's he been? At least at the start of last year we had the plausible excuse of the BOFH being trapped in a lift for an extended period of time to explain any prolonged silence. Is the missing BOFH connected to the unexplained disappearance of AmanFromMars? Are mysterious black helicopters involved?

[Allan Dyer]

@Herby

Perhaps "Failed BOFH" is more accurate. He broke the first rule: Do Not Get Caught. In any case, he might still have the calling, but it isn't his current occupation.

Mine's the one with the Monopoly card in the pocket.

[Anonymous Coward]

Al Capone anyone?

So if he'd paid the tax on it it would have been OK then?

Shuffles off to check Cisco account and self assessment form....

Paris, I don't feel well and I want her to be my nurse.

[Nathanael Bastone]

Talking of BOFHs...

Where is the BOFH this year??? No appearances all of January so far... Please El Reg, we want news!

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone notice something odd here...

"The scam defrauded Cisco of nearly $4.2m, according to prosecutors."

I take it they didn't have such a thing a stock control.

"Here Dave, we sent out a abc to this guy and he's returned a xyz".

"Oh well. Random part out, Check! Random part in, Check.! Jobs a good un"

[Anonymous Coward]

Grrr

I got all excited that finally a new BOFH saga (first of '09) was up when the email came in from the register with a BOFH match. But no not yet. Come on Simon!

[Riscyrich]

....should have

Bought Nortel gear, then it would have been worthless by now :-)

> When the FBI nabbed Kyereme in 2007, he had a lot of Nortel components stashed in his home and car now with a market value of three bob and a bag of plums

[James Pels]

Too damn dumb to be a BOFH

Greed is one thing; greed sombined with stupidy will get you nowhere - this fool got what he deserved.

A decent BOFH would have locked any witnesses in the disk safe long since.

[Hollerith]

Overview

Or audit? Any? Nobody ever just, you know, think about doing a spot-check?

[CeeJay]

The only thing...

...he's going to be a BOFH of in future, will be his home PC. I sure as hell wouldn't employ him.

[Anonymous Coward]

BoFH

So, speaking of the BoFH, where's he at?

It's gone awfully quiet at the moment!

Or is a month long holiday a reward for a year of hard work?

Or has the PFY done him over and locked him in a tape safe?

Bring back BoFH!

[The Fuzzy Wotnot]

5 years?!

You mean I could "accidently" kill someone and do less time?

Once again, money talks and BS....

[steogede]

Shame on Cisco

Okay, I can understand them being tricked out of a few parts, but this many over such a long time period?

I am surprised that the chased this guy, he might have cost them $4.2m, but such a public display of their own incompetence surely must have wipe a lot more than that off their share value.

They obviously haven't heard the saying 'Fool me once...'

[Inachu]

Dummies!

Certain techs will also try to rip off customers when OEM computers are bought and then they arrive the tech rips out the sound card then resells them on ebay.

Also the IT manager was fire thinking that for ever 10 laptops he buys for the company they get 1 free and he though he could keep that 1 freebie for himself.

WRONG!!!!!!!

stupid contractors.

[Wayland Sothcott]

Realtech network cards

I was speaking to a sysadmin who said he ordered some network cards for some cisco gear and when he unwrapped the huge expensive gold plated packaging it was just a pair of ordinary network cards. So he sent them back for a refund and bought cards for £5 each instead.