HP finance manager went on $5m personal spending spree with company card

A now-former HP finance planning manager pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and filing false tax returns that follow from the misappropriation of company funds. According to the US Justice Department, Shelbee Szeto, 30, of Fremont, California, worked at HP Inc from August 2017 through June …

[Terry 6]

Weird

This doesn't sound like your usual case of embezzlement.

Taking massive amounts of cash to buy tons of shiny, with the inevitable result of jail time, sounds more like there's something seriously wrong with that person, beyond criminality.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Weird

If you're at HP and buy something shiny and useless that you couldn't afford - you can always sue the person that sold it to you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Weird

I thought people at HP sold something shiny and useless that you couldn't afford? For instance, printer ink.

[katrinab]

Re: Weird

I think this refers to the purchase of Autonomy.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Weird

"You might think that. I couldn't possibly comment"

[tmTM]

Re: there's something seriously wrong with that person

Yea, she's a complete idiot as well.

[karlkarl]

Re: Weird

It is strange. Almost like she knew she was going to get caught eventually but just wanted to have a great time in the short term.

A little bit short sighted but perhaps she thought she wasn't ever going to get another opportunity to do so (and she was probably right!).

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: Weird

There's a psychological pathology at work, at any rate. I've seen this in other cases, where people embezzle recklessly, with little or no realistic hope of getting away with it. It seems to be compulsive.

There was a somewhat similar case where the company treasurer for a Michigan firm embezzled millions for a 419 scam. You might think someone in that position would have to be able to recognize a 419 — it's not like they're sophisticated — but she just kept pumping company funds into it.

[Terry 6]

Re: Weird

That may well be the answer, or part of it. Maybe it was just a matter of getting the excitement or enjoyment for as long as possible. A temporary escape from a dismal life.

[Cliffwilliams44]

Re: Weird

I've see this many times. At least this one made some effort to conceal her tracks but apparently got a bit greedy with the $330K purchase. I've seen this in Governments. Local Government employees are given PCards and the Finance office is not tracking or requiring expense reports. The employees just start buying stuff for themselves and eventually the money adds up and a change in government brings attention to spending and the employees end up arrested. With the inevitable employee response "I didn't know this was not allowed!"

[SW10]

Never embezzle more than your salary

That’s always been my rule

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Never embezzle more than your salary

Unless you're in government

[Kevin Johnston]

Re: Never embezzle more than your salary

If you are in Government then it IS your salary...at least that seems to be the way it worked for the last 20-30 years

[doublelayer]

How did this work

I understand how she faked documents for HP, and assuming they were done well, HP wouldn't know that her charges were false. However, if I'm understanding correctly, these payments were expected to be paid to a supplier, so how did she avoid the supplier complaining about not being paid? I would have thought that, after every supplier she handled started reporting late or nonpayment, someone would have checked on it if only to prevent angry suppliers. Somehow, this worked for three years.

[David 132]

Re: How did this work

My understanding of the case is that she not only made up suppliers ("Totally-Not-Me, Inc." etc) but she also made up POs and invoices ("Supply of 3 boxes of Totalement Rien(TM), $500,000"). Hence it flew under the radar for longer than it should.

[Tromos]

5.2 megabucks

They're gonna need to sell another half pint of printer ink to make up the shortfall.

[Doctor Syntax]

"doing her best to make amends."

How? Stealing from someone else to pay it back?

[Anonymous Coward]

They landed her a gig at Canon….

[Jon 37]

There's no way she can actually make amends. But she can "try", totally unsuccessfully.

Trying to make amends is a mitigating factor in sentencing. So the lawyer is doing their best for their client, by publicly claiming this mitigating factor in the hope that their client gets a shorter sentence.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

One place I worked, the cashier stole about £3k, we took her to court and she was ordered to repay the money - at £1 per week.

Yep, pay back £3,000 at £1 per week, for 60 years.

We got one single £1 cheque from the court, which the manager pinned to his wall, we never saw another penny...

[Pascal Monett]

Well, first on the list is selling all the stuff she bought with stolen money and giving the proceeds back to HP.

Which will obviously not suffice because the stuff is no longer new, so it'll be sold at a markdown which might be quite important.

Second is her spending the rest of her life remembering that time she had it all only to squander it and find herself cleaning toilets.

Because she will never be given a company card again, that's for sure.

[msobkow]

Given that it was evidence in a fraud case, she no longer has nor owns it to sell.

[Doctor Syntax]

I don't know about the US but in the UK that should be gathered up under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

The jewelry, watches & bags can be sold on at near retail.

The cars will have depreciated somewhat.

[Blank Reg]

not necessarily, some used vehicles are selling for more than a new one because the wait for a new one can be many months long

[Terry 6]

Second hand car prices are certainly ridiculous at the moment. The old battered 107 that we bought for our daughter about 5 years ago ( pre-dented) was just written off by the insurers after a local moron smashed into it while it was parked outside our house. We retained it, (re MOT'd it) from the insurers and accepted their settlement figure. Which was still higher after they'd deducted the scrap value, than we'd paid for it when we bought it. So; We still have the car, with an extra dent, and received more for its value than we paid. And our daughter is still driving it round uni.

When she starts work at a well known multinational computer company in the Autumn we'll give her the insurance money to buy a nice new(er) car. By which time she'll have had 6 years of driving use from the old banger.

[Anonymous Coward]

Watches could certainly be sold at more than retail (I just had a valuation for insurance, and my good watch which is nearly 20 years old was valued at nearly 1.5x the cost of a new one....people will pay a premium and get a used watch now rather than sit on a waiting list for years to get a new one)

[rmullen0]

Working for a $1 a day for the California prison system putting out forest fires

[I Am Spartacus]

Oh, and along the way I bought a UK Software company

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Oh, and along the way I bought a UK Software company

See icon ----------->

[tip pc]

Re: Oh, and along the way I bought a UK Software company

But that was the fault of the uk software company that was bought, America will prosecute the seller for fraud.

[Winkypop]

Fake invoices

Executive “bonuses”

What’s the difference?

[Pascal Monett]

Executive bonuses don't land you in jail.

The shareholders never say much about them either.

[9Rune5]

I blame the toner

She must have mistaken toner for black cocaine and after snorting half a kilo of it; madness ensued and here we are.

The real crime here is that toner costs more than cocaine.

[TheRealRoland]

Shelbee was carrying around a small dog in a designer purse, wasn't she?

[msobkow]

I never have understood the fascination some "people" have for useless bling like Gucci bags. I'm much more into "is it functional?" than "is it brand name?"

But then again, I'm not trying to impress anyone at 57 years old. It isn't like I'm out crusing the bars in a town of 15,000 people, or that designer suits would impress the local hicks. More likely get your sorry butt beaten in an alley for being a snob. :)

[GruntyMcPugh]

If I'd embezzled $5M they'd never find my off grid bunker. I'd be self sufficient and be keeping a low profile.

[Terry 6]

And might as well be in prison anyway. certainly not living the millionaire lifestyle. It's not pinching the money that's the hardest part, it's spending it without ending up seeing the sun light through a barred window

[Michael Wojcik]

Bling is functional. Veblen goods provide social signalling and satisfy psychological cravings that some people are susceptible to acquiring under exposure to certain cultural artifacts.

Those may be functions you don't care about. Good for you; that's one (small) part of acting like a relatively efficient economic agent. It's a quirk of psychology, though. Nothing more.

I'm not interested in Veblen goods either. Some people — and I'm not saying you're one — regard that as some sort of moral superiority, and I think that's mistaken; it's far more complicated.

[msobkow]

"Moral superiority?" Hardly. I just can't fathom their fascination with shiny things with brand names. I can't imagine buying something that isn't _perfectly_ suited to my needs just because it is the "in" thing; I'd much rather have the off-brand that does the job just right.

[Terry 6]

I'm very much of that opinion. "Street credibility" doesn't of itself equate to real life value.When the kids were little I drove a Berlingo. Think box on wheels, with potential to convert from car to van in minutes. Tons of space for kids' travel cots, toys and what-have-you. Street credibility, style and stuff like that =0%

Practicality 100%

[fg_swe]

German Spelling

Whenever you hear "sh" in a German word, it will be written "sch".

Porsche.

[FloridaBee]

And I thought my coworker was bad...

I was rather in shock when I tripped over a coworker's $110,000 embezzlement scheme issuing checks to vendors using their ID numbers and then changing the payee info to her own. She was a piker compared to this one! Still, she got 2 years Federal time, then had the gall to use my name as a professional reference once she got out. I suggested the prospective employer check her criminal background and then lock the doors.

[Anonymous Coward]

Compliance training

It's so awesome that most/all of our Fortune 500 companies make us take these ethics and compliance training courses and those with real access to company funds are always they ones that pull these stunts - but I'm sure she took the training too.

[Flak]

Fiscal governance

Looks like fiscal governance is not HP's strong point. First Autonomy, now this...

[YetAnotherJoeBlow]

Is it just me or does HP have a problem with due diligence ?

[Polhotpot]

On the job training

Sounds like she could have a glittering future in HP’s M&A department, based on her performance.