A software engineer invested the stolen money in GameStop shares (a company that has become a meme for a short time), but he was unsuccessful…

The Seattle software engineer worked for an e-commerce company and, according to statements he gave the police, making money he traded on the stock market. The man’s name is Ermenildo Castro, and he worked for Zulily LLC, a company that sells products mainly to children and women. Castro was arrested in July, and police and court documents outlined the theft and his plans to spend the money. Castro allegedly stole more than $250,000 by draining the shipping money into his account and tampering with Zulily’s source code to buy $40,000 worth of heavily discounted goods. After being questioned by the authorities, Castro admitted to losing the stolen money on GameStop shares.

It was inspired by the 1999 film Office Space. In this film, employees take revenge on a company announcing layoffs by infecting its computers with a virus, which then transferred pennies into their private accounts, resulting in a considerable sum of money over time. Castro modified Zulily’s software, and consumers paid a little more for shipping, with the extra costs being loaded onto his Stripe account. For it, he is charged with two counts of theft and one count of identity theft for buying products on sale and sending them to a woman he met on Tinder. The charges were filed in King County Supreme Court in Seattle, and Castro was released shortly after his arrest, according to a police report.

Prosecutors will also investigate the timing of the stock purchase transactions, which Castro embezzled from February to June. GameStop’s share value fell 53% over the year. It was $35 in the first week of 2022, fell to $19 by mid-March, but climbed back to $47.4 in the two weeks after that, fell to $20 in May, and rose to $30 in June, so if Castro bought in March, his investment could have returned significantly.

He diverted $260,000 from Zulily to his account and “stole” $40,842. Afterward, Zulily noticed in May, and a company security guard showed up at Castro’s home in June, which was full of Zulily packages (he had “bought” over a thousand items). So he was fired in June, and his company laptop was why he got busted because it had a document called OfficeSpace Project on it, which summarised his plans. And why was he targeting the Tinder person with the orders? He was using it to impress her…

He was clever, but he didn’t hide his tracks adequately.

Source: WCCFTech