NEC accuses hungry, thirsty worker of stealing $300m

A man has to eat

By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View • Get more from this author

Posted in IT Channel, 23rd March 2006 20:48 GMT

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NEC this week warned that it will need to restate past financial results after a worker allegedly booked some $310m in faked transactions over three years. The reason for such abuse? NEC claims the worker wanted the money for "drinking and eating".

You can't make this stuff up.

In a lengthy statement, NEC accuses an unnamed male employee in its semiconductor design group of creating a string of "fictitious transactions." The worker would allegedly create a fake purchase order, push it through NEC's accounting system and then weirdest of all actually receive payments for the products from customers.

"The false transactions relate to certain sales of products, which were actually not delivered, and were fabricated by creating fictitious 'round-trip' transactions among NEC Engineering and its vendors and purchasers," NEC said. "The fictitious transactions were first recorded in March 2002 and recorded repeatedly until December 2005."

Oddly, NEC never explains why a customer would pay for made up product. The customers, however, appeared impressed with the fake gear with all of them paying for the equipment on time, according to NEC.

NEC management caught wind of the sketchy transactions and kicked off an internal investigation into the matter. The company hired independent lawyers and accountants to sort through the mess.

"Based on these findings, NEC Engineering will take any necessary actions, including filing criminal actions, against the employee," NEC said.

NEC plans to restate its financial results once auditors have finished looking into the matter, and the company vowed to institute tighter financial controls.

According to Japanese media, NEC claimed that the employee said he needed the extra money for "drinking and eating." A diet of caviar stuffed panda lips and champagne soaked aye-aye testicles can be very expensive. ®

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