SAN JOSE – Dhirendra Prasad, a former buyer for Apple Inc., was sentenced to serve three years in prison and ordered to pay $19,270,683 in restitution for conspiring to defraud Apple of millions of dollars and for related tax crimes, announced United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Special Agent in Charge Darren Lian. The sentence was handed down by the Hon. Beth L. Freeman, United States District Judge.
Prasad, 55, from Mountain House in San Joaquin County, was previously charged by Information with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349 (Count One); two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h) (Counts Two and Three); one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count Four); and one count of tax evasion, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201 (Count Five). Prasad pleaded guilty to the first and fourth count on November 2, 2022. The remaining counts were dismissed at sentencing.
The criminal conduct in this case centered around Prasad’s employment at Apple from December 2008 through December 2018. For most of that time, he was a “buyer” in Apple’s Global Service Supply Chain. It was Prasad’s job as an Apple buyer to facilitate the process through which Apple bought parts to perform warranty repairs on older devices. Prasad exploited his position and conspired with two separate Apple vendors to defraud Apple by taking kickbacks, stealing parts, inflating invoices, and causing Apple to pay for items and services it never received – resulting in a loss to Apple of more than $17,000,000. In addition to engaging in two separate criminal conspiracies with Apple vendors, Prasad also acknowledged that he evaded tax on the proceeds of his schemes.
According to the government’s sentencing memorandum, by virtue of his position at Apple Prasad was given substantial discretion to make autonomous decisions to benefit his employer. Prasad betrayed this trust, and abused his power to enrich himself at his employer’s expense – all while accepting hundreds-of-thousands of dollars’ worth of compensation from Apple in the form of salary and bonuses. Additionally, Prasad used his insider information regarding the company’s fraud-detection techniques to design his criminal schemes to avoid detection.
In addition to the three-year prison sentence, Judge Freeman ordered Prasad to forfeit over $5,491,713 worth of assets—that already have been seized by the government—and to pay an additional forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $8,133,005. Judge Freeman also entered an order of restitution, requiring Prasad to pay $17,398,104 to Apple and $1,872,579 to the IRS, and also ordered Prasad to serve three years of supervised release, to begin after the prison term.
Assistant United States Attorneys Michael G. Pitman and Karen Beausey are prosecuting the case. The prosecution was the result of an investigation led by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.
