Ex-HP employee jailed for $1m expenses con - report
Vice president's assistant spent $100,000 at a spa resort, among other 'extravagant' expenses, report claims
A former HP employee has been jailed after scamming the company out of $1m (£640,000) through bogus expenses claims to fund her "extravagant and luxurious lifestyle", according to reports.
The San Diego Union Tribune (SDUT) reports that Holli Coulman, a former assistant to an HP senior vice president between 2008 and 2012, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for the crime after admitting to the scam.
An FBI report filed a year ago, before the recent sentencing, revealed that Coulman fraudulently claimed back a series of business expenses.
"Coulman began working at HP in San Diego in approximately June 2000, and served as an executive assistant", the papers claim. "In this position, she received a number of American Express corporate credit cards, which were to be used solely for authorised and approved business expenses. Coulman, however, used the credit cards to support an extravagant and luxurious lifestyle."
She spent more than $100,000 at a local spa, which she later claimed back from HP and also pocketed expenses for trips to Hawaii and Europe. Thousands of dollars spent at the Apple Store and on designer clothes were also claimed back from the business account, the document claims. She even paid off $350,000 in expenses accrued by her brother's business through the HP expenses system.
"As revealed in court pleadings, Coulman went to great lengths to cover up her theft of company funds," said the report. "Among other things, she intercepted emails sent from HP programme administrators that questioned her various personal expenditures. After intercepting the incriminating emails, Coulman would often delete them before they could be reviewed by her boss, a senior vice president.
"Occasionally, she would fabricate responses indicating that the expenses had been authorised by her boss, even going so far as to submit fabricated supporting documentation, receipts, and invoices. In total, Coulman stole approximately $954,292.31 from HP through her scheme."
SDUT reports that Coulman expressed deep remorse for her actions.
"I would love for a do-over, and admittedly I am scared to death to go to prison," she wrote in a letter to the judge, SDUT reports. "But I know there must be consequences. I live [with] them daily and will do so for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, my former employer and my family must endure them as well."
Coulman was ordered to pay off the $954,000 restitution in installments of $3,000 per month, according to SDUT.