- The Washington Times - Thursday, October 17, 2024

A Denver woman was sentenced to a year and a day in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution after defrauding her employer Amazon.

Tiffany Vo, 37, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of wire fraud for a reimbursement scheme, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said in a release Thursday. 

She was ordered to pay $483,393.58 in restitution.

While employed at Amazon between 2017 and 2022, Vo ran the company’s “Escape Velocity” programming meant to help onboard outside employees above a certain seniority level. Vo would pay for catering and alcohol before being reimbursed by Amazon, according to Denver business news site BusinessDen.com.

Starting in March 2020, however, the program went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic. From around the summer of 2020 through at least June 2022, Vo created fake invoices and expense reports for goods and services she did not actually buy in order to get the reimbursement money from Amazon, prosecutors said.

This included more than 30 invoices for catering for over $240,000, over 10 invoices for happy hour drinking events for more than $55,000 and at least 11 reimbursement requests for over $50,000 she said was spent on food delivery gift cards, according to court documents.

Vo also used a corporate credit card and made personal purchases of beauty products, accessories and clothes worth over $120,000, according to court documents.

Vo also used the money to pay for her condo, two vehicles and exercise equipment.

“We appreciate the support of the authorities in bringing this matter to closure, and have worked closely with them throughout the process,” Amazon spokesperson Zoe Hoffmann said in a statement.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.

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