Amazon has reported a former employee to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for illegally issuing $96,500 in refunds to himself and friends via sellers’ accounts.
Amazon says that Vu Anh Nguyen, a former Selling Support Associate, has now been arrested for charges including wire fraud and aggravated identity theft by the FBI, after first being reported in July.
As a Selling Support Associate, Nguyen was tasked with helping third party retailers create and manage their listings, giving him access to their seller accounts.
Between November 2019 and February 2020, Nguyen is understood to have issued 318 unauthorised refunds to eight accounts owned by himself and his friends.
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The refunds were for high value items including computers, which were not requested by legitimate purchasers and were never returned to Amazon.
Nguyen had worked for Amazon since March 2019, but was fired by the company after ignoring repeated attempts to contact him regarding the fraudulent activity.
“We thank the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation for their swift work to hold this fraudster accountable,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
“There is no place for misconduct or fraud at Amazon. We hold our employees to a high bar, have systems in place to proactively prevent fraud, continue to monitor activity, and will pursue all measures to protect our store and hold bad actors accountable.”
It is understood that Nguyen is also involved in a separate “free-riding” securities fraud case, which resulted in eight brokerage firms losing around $1 million.
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