SEATTLE — A Washington state man is accused of taking more than his company’s stapler, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said that charges were filed last week against a former Zulily software engineer who allegedly transferred more than $300,000 from the company to his account, KIRO-TV reported. The moves were allegedly inspired by the 1999 cult film, “Office Space.”
According to documents filed by the Seattle Police Department, Ermenildo Valdez Castro, 28, faces two counts of first-degree theft and one count of first-degree identity theft.
In total, Castro stole $302,278.52. He faces two counts of first-degree theft and one count of first-degree identity theft. https://t.co/eYrtn6QlMQ
— KIRO 7 (@KIRO7Seattle) December 30, 2022
Castro worked for the online retailer from December 2018 until he was fired in June, according to CNN.
According to the police report -- and not a TPS report, by the way -- Castro began editing Zulily’s software code “in ways that allowed him to steal from the company.”
Police said Castro stole $302,278.52 from the Seattle retailer, according to KIRO.
Prosecutors said there were three ways that Castro, by using malicious code, was able to allegedly funnel money from the company to his account, the television station reported.
Castro allegedly wrote a software code that applied a small percentage of Zulily customer checkouts and sent all shipping fees associated with those purchases to a Stripe.com account controlled by Castro., That resulted in the theft of $110,240.71, police said.
After Zulily began investigating that issue, Castro wrote a replacement code that double-charged certain customers for shipping and sent the shipping fee to both Zulily and Castro’s Stripe.com account, KIRO reported. That resulted in the theft of $151,645.50.
Castro also changed the prices of items on Zulily.com and then bought the items for pennies on the dollar, according to the television station. That resulted in the theft of $40,842.31.
Between March 1 and June 2, 2022, Castro ordered 1,294 items with a total value of $41,096.20, KIRO reported. Police said Castro only paid $253.89 for the items.
Zulily’s fraud team was able to discover a pattern of price adjustments, CNN reported.
In its certification for determination of probable cause, Seattle police included the plot outline of “Office Space,” KIRO reported.
“In the Initech office, the insecure Peter Gibbons hates his job … His best friends are two software engineers Michael Bolton and Samir Nagheenanajar, that also hate Initech … When he discovers that Michael and Samir will be downsized, they decide to plant a virus in the banking system to embezzle fractions of cents on each financial operation into Peter’s account. However, Michael commits a mistake in the software on the decimal place and they siphon off over $300 thousand. The desperate trio tries to fix the problem, return the money and avoid going to prison.”
Castro was contacted by police and arrested on June 21, according to King County online booking records. On that date, he spoke with detectives after being read his rights.
Police said that during that interview, Castro “confirmed that he named his scheme to steal from Zulily after the movie,” CNN reported.
Castro was released two days later, online records show.
Daniel Satterberg, the prosecuting attorney for King County, filed charges on Dec. 20, according to CNN.
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