And finally… as seen on TV

And finally... as seen on TV

A man has been arrested and charged with stealing over $300,000 (£253k) in a scheme that was inspired by the movie Office Space.

According to the affidavit, Ernie Castro, from Seattle, began running a series of schemes starting in February, after working at the company Zulily for three years. He allegedly altered the computer code in his employer’s systems to redirect a small percentage of the shipping charges from customer purchases to an account he owned. The discrepancy was soon discovered by the firm’s fraud team.

Additionally, prosecutors claim that Castro wrote another piece of code that doubled the shipping prices for customers and split the difference between himself and his firm, netting him $151k (£127k).

In yet another scheme, Castro is said to have allegedly had a woman he met on Tinder send links to shopping carts full of products, which he bought for a fraction of the price.



In June Castro was put on leave and fired shortly after. Upon returning his company laptop, a document was found entitled “OfficeSpace project” that outlined the shipping scheme.

Castro admitted to changing the code, but claimed that the company was aware of the alterations. The affidavit states that Castro no longer has any of the money, as he told investigators he lost it all after investing it in GameStop options, Fortune reports.

He is facing charges of two counts of felony theft and one count of felony identity theft.

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