Insider Theft Busted by Sharp-Eyed Xerox Employees

A former Xerox customer service agent pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Tuesday for stealing cartridges from his former employer and selling them online.

Asdrubal Sampayo faces up to 20 years in prison and US$250,000 in fines. Sentencing is scheduled for May 23 in the U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Between June 2005 and October 2005, Sampayo placed orders for 18 shipments of toner cartridges worth $490,000 using bogus names for Boeing employees, the U.S. Department of Justice said. At the time, Sampayo was servicing copy machines at Boeing’s facility in Tukwila, Washington, the DOJ said.

Xerox became suspicious about the orders because the cartridges requested were incompatible with the copiers at the facility. Security staff at Xerox and Boeing then observed the shipments of the toners and caught Sampayo, handing him over to federal officers. [For more red flags signalling internal fraud, see CSO’s How to Prevent and Detect Fraud.]

Federal officers found eBay and PayPal records indicating that Sampayo had sold 934 cartridges online for more than $135,000.

Sampayo agreed to pay restitution of $392,902 to Xerox as part of the plea agreement.

By Agam Shah, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)