Two charged with stealing $22 million from NW & DL over 9+ years

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FWAAA

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Jan 5, 2003
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For more than nine years, two men defrauded NW and DL:
 


Two men have been indicted on charges they defrauded Delta and Northwest Airlines of $22 million between 2004 and 2013.
 

Michael Yedor and Paul Anderson have been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and 96 counts of mail fraud.
 
Anderson, 57, of Apple Valley, Minn., had worked for Northwest since 1979. When Delta and Northwest merged in 2009, Anderson became an employee of Delta.

 
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/duo-accused-of-defrauding-delta-of-22-million/ngTXY/
 
http://www.fbi.gov/atlanta/press-releases/2014/two-men-charged-with-defrauding-delta-and-northwest-airlines-of-22-million
 
 
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For me, that's the story - that it continued for so long undetected.  
 
Where were the auditors?   Lots of people decry the existence of "bean counters" but part of the bean counters' job is to ensure that nobody is stealing all those beans.    :D
 
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I would understand rich people being forced to pay back restitution, but C'mon man.  This guy is suppose to pay back 36 million.  Ok lets see, after 10 years in prison, for lets see, stealing from his employer, with huge felony on record, will get a new job---WHERE?  Or if he is finally successful in finding a job how much will the man make per year?  He is 57 now, will be 65-67 when he gets out.  He has about 10-15 years left in him to work and he needs to pay off a 36 million bill while all the same time paying for his own living expenses, yea that's going to happen.  I laugh every time at crap like this.  It's the same as suing someone, it's one thing to sue and win, and it's a total different thing to collect.  Glad to see the punishment come thru.  I hate liars and thieves, hope they have fun in prison, heheheheh...
 
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Well, yes, but what did he do with the millions he stole?  I'm guessing the court expects some/all of that that can be located to go toward the restitution.  As for the rest, if he does get a job when he gets out, he's going to have budget very carefully.  Those court orders tend to take precedence over rent money.
 
The court doesn't expect him to be able to pay back all of the $36 million from whatever job he manages to find after getting out of prison; the restitution order is there in case his rich Nigerian uncle leaves him tens of millions of dollars or in case he buys a winning lotto ticket upon his release. Lawyers are notorious for covering unlikely, very remote contingencies that are theoretically possible (even though probably not gonna happen). :)

Plus, he didn't spend it all - there's the Beverly Hills mansion and the 71.9 foot yacht (must be something significant if it had measured 72 feet) that he has to turn over to Delta. Might be some investment accounts with stocks and bonds, too.

I'm still stunned that it could go on for 14+ years (longer than mentioned initially) and could net them $36 million.

Did management have a philosophical aversion to hiring competent auditors? Or will we eventually read about an auditor or two facing criminal charges for this conspiracy (maybe the auditors were in on it). I'm not talking about outside accounting firm auditors - I'm talking about the internal audit staff that every multi-billion company (usually) employs. Someone who scrutinizes most of the invoices that get paid - that kind of thing. Outside accounting firms do random sampling during their audits and could easily miss it, but inside auditors? Wow.
 
it does seem hard to believe it wasn't noticed but remember that the contract spanned a merger and it might have been a fairly small item that got little attention in the merger until later investigations turned it up.

Let's face it that a $2M/year contract is not one of DL's largest = and given that there are mechanisms in place to recover regardless of the reason, it might not be worth more PR value than actual damages.
 
swamt said:
I would understand rich people being forced to pay back restitution, but C'mon man.  This guy is suppose to pay back 36 million.  Ok lets see, after 10 years in prison, for lets see, stealing from his employer, with huge felony on record, will get a new job---WHERE?  Or if he is finally successful in finding a job how much will the man make per year?  He is 57 now, will be 65-67 when he gets out.  He has about 10-15 years left in him to work and he needs to pay off a 36 million bill while all the same time paying for his own living expenses, yea that's going to happen.  I laugh every time at crap like this.  It's the same as suing someone, it's one thing to sue and win, and it's a total different thing to collect.  Glad to see the punishment come thru.  I hate liars and thieves, hope they have fun in prison, heheheheh...
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 all that is if they find money. Ie strike oil or something. 
 
FWAAA said:
The court doesn't expect him to be able to pay back all of the $36 million from whatever job he manages to find after getting out of prison; the restitution order is there in case his rich Nigerian uncle leaves him tens of millions of dollars or in case he buys a winning lotto ticket upon his release. Lawyers are notorious for covering unlikely, very remote contingencies that are theoretically possible (even though probably not gonna happen). :)

Plus, he didn't spend it all - there's the Beverly Hills mansion and the 71.9 foot yacht (must be something significant if it had measured 72 feet) that he has to turn over to Delta. Might be some investment accounts with stocks and bonds, too.

I'm still stunned that it could go on for 14+ years (longer than mentioned initially) and could net them $36 million.

Did management have a philosophical aversion to hiring competent auditors? Or will we eventually read about an auditor or two facing criminal charges for this conspiracy (maybe the auditors were in on it). I'm not talking about outside accounting firm auditors - I'm talking about the internal audit staff that every multi-billion company (usually) employs. Someone who scrutinizes most of the invoices that get paid - that kind of thing. Outside accounting firms do random sampling during their audits and could easily miss it, but inside auditors? Wow.
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Delta's internal auditors probably got DGSed......
 
 
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To be fair, it would have been NWA's internal audit. We were pretty stingy with signature authority at AA -- I couldn't sign for anything over $10,000 without a director's approval.

Probably the wrong group to ask, but how was signature authority handled at NWA? I find it hard to believe that Anderson getting invoices of that value approved without some form of checks & balances being in place?
 
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