KIA accountant embezzeled $889k
An certified public accountant, Mrs. Cecile Nhung Campbell, working at KIA motors was sentenced to 76 months of jail time last Friday after she pleaded guilty federal charges of grand theft, money laundering and filing false tax returns, according to a statement from the Orange County (CA) district attorneys office. Mrs. Nhung Campbell worked for KIA back in 2002, when she made three transfers worth a combined $889k to a bank account opened by her brother. That account was opened at Wells Fargo under the fictitious business name U.S. Customs Service Detail. Ho created the account to resemble the legitimate federal United States Customs Service, which collects import duties on shipments of automobiles that arrive in the United States. The accountant created fake invoices from U.S. Customs Service Detail that were sent to KIA. After KIA paid the invoices, the money was transferred to personal accounts and used to pay off debts and pay for personal expenses.
The hubby, a lawyer, was also in the plot. He was sentenced to 48 months for money laundering and receiving stolen goods. The brother was arrested when he tried to re-enter the US coming from Vietnam. The automaker ultimately was able to recoup $265,000 of the $889,000 from the Wells Fargo account.
Do trust your accountant? Double check on him/her every now and then? Are you sure you only pay “legit” creditors? Better be sure. You would expect a company like KIA to have some controls in place that would have prevented this from happening. But hey, where there is a fraud in corporate environment, the controls were probably there (written down somewhere) but fraud awareness and adherence to standards are usually on the lower side of the scale.
