Monday, December 21, 2009

Koss Executive Accused of Theft

Wow...

A longtime financial executive with Koss Corp. was accused Monday of embezzling more than $4.5 million from the Milwaukee company and using the money to pay for shopping sprees at high-end stores.

Sujata Sachdeva, who has been vice president of finance and secretary at Koss since 1992, was charged with one count of wire fraud, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Jacobs, prosecutor in the case. She appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Aaron Goodstein in federal court late Monday and was released on an unsecured bond, Jacobs said.

Between January 2008 and Dec. 18, 2009, Sachdeva allegedly used more than $4.5 million in stolen Koss money to pay credit card charges for pricey jewelry, high-end women’s clothing and expensive household items, Jacobs said, citing the criminal complaint.

Sachdeva’s American Express bills that were allegedly paid for with Koss funds included $1.3 million in clothing from a single store in Mequon, $130,000 in jewelry and $600,000 from a bridal store in Milwaukee, Jacobs said.

(7) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2212 hrs
Economy + Law

  1. Kind of explains where their profits went.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 22, 2009 at 0311 hrs


  2. And HOW long did it take to figure this out?  Almost 2 YEARS?

    Posted by Steve on December 22, 2009 at 0534 hrs


  3. How did she pay for the bond? And who (and where) were the auditors for Koss that they didn’t catch this right away?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 22, 2009 at 1221 hrs


  4. If this only happened over two years, I’m guessing the auditors are the ones who caught it this year.  I’m more amazed that anyone could blow a F$#)$(#) million dollars on clothes.  That it the part of the story that makes my head spin.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 22, 2009 at 2352 hrs


  5. Nope - the credit card company (AMEX) was the one that caught it. Frankly - if I was the CEO of that company I would fire my entire accounting staff and get a new outside firm asap.

    Talk about being asleep at the switch!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 23, 2009 at 0956 hrs


  6. She may very well may have been the entire “accounting staff”.  I’m an accountant, and you certainly don’t need a truck load of us to run a $20 million dollar firm.  Definitely some A/R, A/P folks but otherwise perhaps a few junior people, and someone at her level could certainly divide the work to keep that kind of fraud at her level alone.

    But certainly her bosses should have caught on, as should the auditors.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 23, 2009 at 1017 hrs


  7. It may turn out she took over $20 million.  Think about it.  $20,000,000 over only a couple of years.  How much is that per share?  Who was minding the store, soto speak?  If I was a share holder, i’d be pretty pissed.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 25, 2009 at 0509 hrs


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