Indian, 2 others plead guilty to stealing thousands of dollars

An Indian man is among three persons who have pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars from their employer, a luxury accessories company, in the US.
Sanjay Damodar (31) of New Jersey, Brandon Detvo (40) and Kelly Rogel (32) pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to charges of grand larceny, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.
The three were senior employees of Henri Bendel's New York Finance team and stole thousands of dollars from their employer, a luxury accessories company.
Detvo and Damodar additionally pleaded to one count of falsifying business records.
Rogel is expected to be sentenced later this month while Detvo and Damodar will be sentenced in September.

"These company supervisors stole from the very accounts that they were hired to manage," Vance said.

"Theft and fraud by insiders continues to be a major threat to companies of all sizes."
According to the guilty pleas and statements, between April 2013 and February 2014, Detvo, Rogel and Damodar stole from Henri Bendel by issuing checks from the company's bank account to a consulting company owned by Detvo and Rogel.
The schemes netted more than USD 168,000.
Between April 2013 and June 2013, the defendants routed checks totaling approximately USD 76,300 from Henri Bendel to the consulting company.
Damodar, in his role as Accounts Payable Senior Supervisor, initiated 13 payments from Henri Bendel to approved vendors without ever receiving invoices from those vendors.

Once they were approved by Rogel or Detvo, Damodar changed the payee from the approved vendor to the consulting company.
Over the course of the schemes, the defendants transferred the stolen funds from the consulting company's account into their personal bank accounts and made purchases and transactions using debit cards connected with the consulting company.