Inspired by ‘Office Space’ film, Washington software engineer steals over US$300K from employer, prosecutors say

A Washington man allegedly transferred 1000’s of {dollars} from his employer into a private account after being impressed by the 1999 cult film “Office Space,” in line with an arrest report by the Seattle Police Department.

Ermenildo Valdez Castro, 28, labored for the net retailer Zulily as a software program engineer from December 2018 till he was fired in June, in line with police.

“Starting in the spring of 2022, Castro began editing Zulily’s software code in ways that allowed him to steal from the company,” the police report mentioned.

Police mentioned Castro inserted three kinds of malicious code within the checkout course of at Zulily and through the use of these strategies, “stole a combined (US)$302,278.52 before he was terminated in June 2022.”

Zulily’s fraud workforce was in a position to uncover a sample of worth changes on a number of merchandise that have been offered by the corporate, which police mentioned have been ordered by Castro and shipped to his residence, the report mentioned.

A OneNote doc on Castro’s work laptop computer known as “OfficeSpace Project” was discovered by the investigation, and in it, a “scheme to steal shipping fees,” was outlined, in line with the report.

The police report additionally notes the plot of the film “Office Space” revolved round engineers who produced a plan to maneuver fractions of cents into a private checking account.

Castro was contacted by police and arrested on June 21. On that date he spoke with detectives after being learn his rights. During that interview he “confirmed that he named his scheme to steal from Zulily after the movie,” police mentioned.

Castro additionally advised authorities he positioned orders for over 1,000 gadgets that have been shipped to his home, and that they have been a part of a “testing process that Zulily was aware about, but he claimed that there was a script that was to be run shortly thereafter that would essentially cancel the order and ensure the orders did not process,” the report mentioned.

“He said the test orders would have to be billed to a personal credit card, thus his changing of the items’ prices, as to avoid incurring a large expense on his personal credit card. He said he forgot to run the script; therefore, the orders shipped. He admitted that he did not ever notify Zulily staff of the orders being delivered,” the police report mentioned.

Castro additionally advised police he threw lots of the gadgets away as soon as he was fired.

“When asked why he never returned the items to Zulily, he said that once they fired him, his opinion was, ‘F**k ’em,'” the report mentioned.

On December 20, Daniel Satterberg, the prosecuting legal professional for King County, filed costs of theft within the first diploma and identification theft within the first diploma within the Superior Court of Washington for King County towards Castro.

As of Friday afternoon, the King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office web site didn’t record an legal professional for Castro.