A former Apple employee has been charged with defrauding the tech giant out of more than $10 million by taking kickbacks, stealing equipment and laundering money, federal prosecutors said.

Dhirendra Prasad, 52, worked for 10 years as a buyer in Apple’s Global Service Supply Chain department. A federal criminal case unsealed Friday alleges that he exploited his position to defraud the company in several schemes, including stealing parts and causing the company to pay for items and services it never received.

A court has allowed the federal government to seize five real estate properties and financial accounts worth about $5 million from Prasad, and the government is seeking to keep those assets as proceeds of crime, the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Jose said in a news release.

Prasad is scheduled to appear in court Thursday to answer to charges of engaging in a conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. It’s unclear whether he has retained a lawyer. A phone number listed for him was disconnected.

Two owners of vendor companies that did business with Apple have admitted to conspiring with Prasad to commit fraud and launder money, prosecutors said.

https://fcced.com/fmr-employee-accused-of-apple-fraud-203222129/

Collin Anderson • March 21, 2022 4:59 am

Just two days after a nonpartisan watchdog group filed a complaint showing congresswoman Cindy Axne failed to disclose up to $645,000 in stock trades, the Iowa Democrat used thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to hire liberal fixer Marc Elias.

From Sept. 24 to Sept. 30, Axne paid Elias Law Group nearly $5,700 for a "non-technology service contract," House disbursement disclosures show. Axne's partnership with Elias continued into October, when she paid the longtime Democratic operative an additional $12,567. The September contract began just two days after the Campaign Legal Center filed an ethics complaint showing Axne sold "more than 40 assets with a total value ranging from approximately $43,043 to $645,000" in 2019 and 2020 "without disclosing the transactions," a violation of the STOCK Act, which requires members of Congress to report large financial transactions within 30 days.

Axne, who is facing a difficult reelection bid in a district former president Donald Trump won in both 2016 and 2020, went on to concede that she failed to report the trades, calling the oversight a "clerical issue." In order to rectify the problem, Axne said she brought in an "outside counsel to audit her reports." But Axne did not reveal whom she hired and the subsequent cost to the taxpayer. Now, Axne's financial filings suggest the Democrat used at least $18,229 in taxpayer funds to enlist Elias.

Axne is far from the only Iowa Democrat to turn to Elias when facing a controversial issue. After failed congressional candidate Rita Hart lost by six votes to Republican congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in 2020, the Democrat hired Elias to attempt to overturn the election. Instead of taking the issue to the Iowa court system, Elias attempted to bring the decision to a vote in the House, where Democrats hold a majority. The strategy eventually failed—but only after House Democrats billed taxpayers more than $800,000 in legal fees.

Iowa Republican chairman Jeff Kaufmann blasted Axne for hiring Elias after he "tried to subvert the will of Iowa voters."

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/facing-stock-trade-controversy-cindy-axne-used-taxpayer-funds-to-hire-dem-fixer/

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