Six former Apple employees have been charged with tricking the tech company into matching thousands of dollars in donations to children’s charities, when they weren’t donating anything.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that over three years, the six tech employees defrauded both the state of California and Apple’s Matching Gifts Program.
Under the direction of Siu Kei (Alex) Kwan, five defendants all pretended to make donations to the American Chinese International Cultural Exchange (ACICE) or Hop4Kids.
Prosecutors said the suspects were given the donations back and Kwan — the CEO of Hop4Kids and accountant for ACICE — kept Apple’s matching funds.
County authorities said all the donators wrote off their “charitable donations” on their tax returns.
Siu Kei (Alex) Kwan, 37, of Castro Valley; Yathei (Hayson) Yuen, 34, of San Jose; Yat C (Sunny) Ng, 35, of Milpitas; Wentao (Victor) Li, 38, of Hayward; Lichao Ni, 39, of Sunnyvale; and Zheng Chang, 31, of Union City, were charged with multiple felony offenses including grand theft, conspiracy to commit felony grand theft, perjury, and tax fraud.
Furthermore, they face charges under the aggravated white-collar crime enhancement due to the substantial sums involved. If convicted, they could face time in jail, be forced to pay back restitution, and be levied fines and fees.
“This case underscores our unwavering commitment to rigorously prosecuting individuals who defraud the tech community and misuse vital charitable programs and state resources,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “We commend Apple for coming forward and actively collaborating with our office to uncover this elaborate fraud.”
Prosecutors said, by exploiting Apple’s employee gift-matching program, the defendants extracted approximately $152,000 from Apple’s program and overreported around $100,000 in charitable contributions as tax deductions.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact investigator Justin DeOliveira at jdeoliveira@dao.sccgov.org.
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