Ex-Home Depot employee pleads guilty in fraud case
NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) - A former Home Depot Inc (HD.N) employee has pleaded guilty to charges that he ran a kickback scam that defrauded the home improvement retailer out of millions of dollars, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday.
The former Home Depot employee, Anthony Tesvich of Atlanta, Georgia, took payments from suppliers seeking to do business with the retailer, and then paid out more than $2.5 million of that to other Home Depot employees to further the corrupt scheme, according to the Department of Justice.
"This defendant has now admitted to taking millions of dollars in secret payoffs from Home Depot's vendors and not reporting or paying taxes on that corrupt income," United States Attorney David Nahmias said in a statement.
Tesvich, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of tax evasion.
According to Nahmias and information presented in court, Tesvich plotted to defraud Home Depot from October 2002 through October 2007, taking kickbacks from foreign suppliers and vendors to insure those vendors' products were chosen for inclusion in Home Depot stores.
After Tesvich left the company, he gave cash payments -- which he called "french fries" and "milk shakes" -- to co-conspirator employees at Home Depot, totaling more than $2.5 million, according to the plea agreement.
Tesvich also pleaded guilty to evading federal taxes on his corrupt income for tax years 2003 to 2005.
He could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge, and a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison on the tax evasion charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 2. (Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)
