Ex-employee charged for allegedly swindling millions from Williams-Sonoma
CORTE MADERA, CALIFORNIA - MAY 25: A customer leaves a Williams-Sonoma store on May 25, 2022 in Corte Madera, California. San Francisco-based home furnishing retailer Williams-Sonoma reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings with profits o
SAN FRANCISCO - A former employee of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. was charged with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly swindling $10 million from the retail giant, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California said.
Prosecutors said that a federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Ben Thomas III, 48, on Wednesday with eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering.
Based on the indictment, Thomas allegedly registered a fake temporary staffing firm, Empire Logistics Services. From 2016 to 2023, Thomas was the general manager of the WSI hub and distribution facility in Braselton, Georgia where he had the authority to hire temporary staffing vendors and approve payments of up to $50,000 to vendors.
"As a WSI general manager, Thomas was prohibited from self-dealing and from billing WSI for work from a company affiliated with him. The indictment alleges that Thomas concealed from WSI the fact that he owned and controlled Empire, and that he was billing WSI via Empire for work never performed," the U.S. Attorney's office said.
Prosecutors alleged that between 2017 and 2023, he submitted hundreds of fraudulent Empire invoices to WSI, each for less than Thomas's $50,000 approval limit. He then approved a total of 335 WSI payments over six years, totaling more than $10 million in a bank account he was managing.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Thomas is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court in San Francisco on Oct. 1. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 and restitution for each count of wire fraud, and 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 and restitution for each count of money laundering.