Another big case broke out at Amazon, and a former employee made nearly 10 million US dollars by being a "fake VC"!

Recently, another major case broke out in Amazon, which attracted widespread attention in the industry.

Former Amazon manager used fake VC to defraud nearly 10 million US dollars

A former Amazon operations manager used a fake VC account to submit fake invoices, and then operated approval to complete the payment, causing Amazon to directly lose approximately US$9.4 million.

The U.S. justice department said that the former Amazon operations manager, named Kerika Wortham, provided fake supplier information to unsuspecting subordinates while she was employed at Amazon from 2020 to 2022, and asked them to enter the information into the Amazon supplier system.

Then, Waltham himself passed the review of these fake VC accounts, and then asked these fake suppliers to submit invoices and receive payments from Amazon.

Waltham controlled the entire process of supplier recruitment, service, receipt, and payment. He recruited insiders within Amazon and then controlled the entire transaction chain together with external accomplices, ultimately resulting in Amazon transferring nearly tens of millions of dollars to a bank account controlled by Waltham.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Wortham and co-conspirator Brittany Hudson used the proceeds to purchase luxury homes and vehicles, including a nearly $1 million house in Smyrna, Georgia, a 2019 Lamborghini Urus, a 2021 Dodge Durango, a 2022 Tesla Model X, a 2018 Porsche Panamera and a Kawasaki ZX636 motorcycle.

Shockingly, after being arrested by the police, Waltham and Hudson continued to commit crimes while on bail. They sent forged court documents to the CRU chain, containing forged signatures of the Chief Judge of the United States and forged seals and signatures of district judges and court clerks, in an attempt to defraud another company.

The final result of the trial was that the mastermind Wortham will serve 16 years in federal prison and will be ordered to repay Amazon approximately $9.47 million in losses.

Criminals are rampant, and sellers have been sentenced for bribing Amazon employees!

In the past two years, Amazon has repeatedly become the main "target" of such criminals. Driven by the huge profits of the "underground industry chain", in addition to internal employees of the platform, external personnel sometimes become accomplices of these criminals, which has had an extremely bad impact on the fair competition of sellers on the platform.

Just a few months ago, the case of sellers bribing Amazon employees was officially sentenced, and several sellers were sentenced to prison!

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that an Amazon seller named Nuhanovic was sentenced to 20 months in prison for bribing Amazon employees to make illegal profits.

It is understood that the seller and his accomplices bribed Amazon employees to restore their banned products or delete negative reviews. Even after Amazon fired one briber, Nuhanovic did not give up and tried to bribe more employees.

According to court records, Nuhanovic had run an e-commerce business since 2010 that sold items such as DVDs and smartphone cases.

Between 2017 and 2018, he paid more than $20,000 in bribes to an Amazon employee to obtain insider information that gave his own business a competitive advantage, and he also made money by selling some of the inside information to others.

In addition, Nuhanovic would use internal means to fabricate false information about competitors. It is understood that due to false intellectual property complaints filed by Nuhanovic, a competitor was suspended from selling on the Amazon platform.

What’s even more outrageous is that they will use internal channels to find the contact information of consumers who gave bad reviews, and then bombard them with emails.

It is not difficult to imagine that if such cases occur frequently, it will have an immeasurable impact on the platform and sellers. It should be noted that although the case occurred abroad, due to the commonality, sharing and confidentiality of platform information, many sellers at home and abroad may become "victims".

There is a problem with the supply chain, and the sellers are innocently implicated and their accounts are blocked!

Over the years, we have seen many cases where domestic and foreign buyers and sellers have exploited platform loopholes to make profits, but without exception, these people have been punished by law.

For sellers, it is crucial to operate in compliance with the Amazon platform.

However, some sellers have encountered bad things recently. They were innocently implicated and their accounts were blocked because they sold goods stolen from suppliers!

These sellers said they were unaware because they purchased the goods from third-party wholesalers and had no idea that the goods were stolen from the suppliers.

The products include Breville espresso machines, Keurig coffee makers, Levoit humidifiers, LG computer monitors, SharkNinja mops, vacuum cleaners and appliances.

To prove their innocence, these sellers have contacted Amazon. At the same time, they are also checking which suppliers provided the problematic products.

One seller whose account was blocked said that one of his suppliers was KZ, a large wholesale and distribution company. When he contacted Amazon about the blockage, an account representative told him that KZ had been included in an internal list of "risky suppliers," but Amazon declined to disclose whether such a list existed.

Last December, KZ's warehouse in Huntington Beach, California, was raided. U.S. law enforcement found millions of dollars worth of stolen goods, including several pallets of Dyson vacuum cleaners, TP-Link routers, Ninja blenders, and Breville espresso machines. A few weeks later, law enforcement conducted a similar raid on the warehouse of one of KZ's customers.

The seller is currently unsure whether his account was blocked or not due to KZ’s products.

Amazon made it clear : “Amazon does not allow sellers to list stolen goods, and we work closely with law enforcement, retailers, and brands to stop bad actors and hold them accountable, including withholding funds, terminating accounts, and making referrals to law enforcement.”

It is understood that Amazon has a professional ORC team. These law enforcement officers are responsible for tracking every package shipped through Amazon warehouses and reporting any suspicious products directly to the US authorities.

However, some Amazon sellers said that they have never received a warning that the products in their stores are stolen goods, nor have they received a warning of problematic goods. Unless they successfully appeal to Amazon, they will be forced to permanently block their accounts.

A seller named Ricky Sala said, “Amazon’s ban has dealt a devastating blow to our store because we don’t know which products are stolen. We don’t even dare to order any products now because we don’t know which suppliers are at risk.”

The editor here also reminds sellers that when choosing suppliers, they should conduct sufficient research and investigation, and when communicating with suppliers about products, they must ask for proof of the legal source of the products. Especially when facing low-priced products, they must be cautious and not be blinded by the immediate benefits, so as not to lose more than they gain. Because if you want to operate on the Amazon platform for a long time, you must abide by the regulations of the Amazon platform, otherwise you will be punished, including but not limited to warnings, restrictions on sales permissions, suspension of accounts, etc.

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