Former Amazon operations manager Kayricka Wortham, along with six other individuals, has been charged with stealing over $9.4 million from the company. During her time at Amazon, she filed over $10 million in faux invoices for vendors that don’t exist, duping the company into paying her and her co-conspirators $9.4 million.
“The defendant abused her position of trust at Amazon to steal nearly $10 million from the company based on a brazen fraud scheme involving fake vendors and fictitious invoices,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan in a press release by the Northern District of Georgia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“She then committed new crimes while on bond, even creating a fake dismissal document purporting to be from the court and that included the forged signature of the Chief U.S. District Judge, all for the purpose of misleading a franchising company about the status of her criminal charges. Her prison sentence recognizes the magnitude of her fraud and serves to protect the integrity of our courts and justice system.”
Wortham worked with Brittany Hudson, owner of Legend Express LLC, to file the fake invoices, as reported by WSB-TV 75. Amazon’s loss prevention employee Demetrius Hines and senior human resources assistant Laquettia Blanchard along with JaQuan Frazier, Darrel J. Burgo, and Jamar L. James Sr to provide social security numbers and names for the invoices created by Wortham.
The charges were filed in last December and since Wortham and Hudson have forged more paperwork attempting to start a company in Atlanta. The pair created false court documents stating they had been cleared of all Amazon theft-related charges, complete with a forged signature of Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. and a Clerk of the Court.
“The Secret Service takes cases of fraud extremely seriously,” said Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Atlanta Field Office Steven R. Baisel. “This individual stole millions from a business that employed her – exploiting not only their trust, but our nation’s financial systems. Thanks to the hard work of our partners in the U.S. Attorney’s office, her sentence reflects the seriousness of her crimes and sends a message that this kind of fraudulent activity will not be tolerated.”
Wortham has been sentenced to 16 years in prison and ordered to pay Amazon $9,469,731.45. Over $2.7 million was seized from her bank accounts, as well as homes and vehicles she pay for with the stolen money. She has yet to be sentenced for falsifying documents and signatures regarding the Atlanta company lawsuit.
Charges for Hudson, James, and Burgo are still pending. Hines plead guilty last year and Blanchard and Frazier followed suit last month. Their sentences have not yet been determined.