COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Powell man pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $26 million from his Columbus employer on Wednesday.
According to the U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker’s office, 35-year-old Yi He admitted in U.S. District Court to committing wire fraud and filing a false tax return.
Yi was an employee of a furniture company that provides pieces to retailers like Wayfair, Overstock, Kohls, Walmart and Ashley, according to court records. He was responsible for payroll and payroll tax-related duties.
Parker’s office said in a release that from 2018 to 2022, Yi embezzled money from the company’s bank account into his own personal and financial investment accounts. He also submitted false and fraudulent bank and financial statements to the company’s leadership to stay undetected.
In one report, Yi wired himself $100,000 in a wire transfer in Feb. 2022. He then falsified that month’s bank account statement by removing the transaction.
According to Parker’s office, he stole $26.5 million from the company.
Yi also helped oversee an employee incentive LLC that reportedly rewarded employees with 10 or more years of service as a way to earn more and supplement retirement. Yi embezzled from the LLC’s bank accounts, and in one transaction in April 2022, he paid himself $200,000 by falsely categorizing the transfer as “rent.”
Yi stole $635,000 in total from the LLC.
From 2018 through 2021, he failed to report his income, causing a total tax loss of approximately $6.8 million.
Yi will have to pay more than $27 million in restitution to the furniture company and LLC as part of his guilty plea and he will forfeit two homes in Reynoldsburg and another in Columbus.
