Amazon sales support associate is arrested after the company reports him to the FBI for 'fraudulently issuing $96,500 in refunds to himself and his friends'

 An Amazon sales support associate has been arrested after the company reported him to the FBI for allegedly fraudulently issuing $96,500 in refunds to himself and his friends. 

Vu Anh Nguyen, who was employed by Amazon in Tempe, Arizona, was charged last week with wire fraud and identity theft. 

Amazon reported Nguyen to authorities back in July after accusing him of falsely issuing refunds totaling $96,508 to himself and his friends for products ordered on Amazon.com. 

In his role, Nguyen was allowed to manually issue refunds to Amazon customers.  

According to the criminal complaint, Nguyen allegedly committed the fraud between November 2019 to February 2020.

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Vu Anh Nguyen, who was employed by Amazon in Tempe, Arizona, was charged last week with wire fraud and identity theft for allegedly issuing $96,508 in refunds to himself and his friends

During that time, he allegedly issued 318 refunds for orders purchased through eight different Amazon accounts.

The accounts belonged to Nguyen and his friends, the complaint says.

Authorities say the refunds were not requested by legitimate purchasers.

The refunds were for high-value items, including computers and electronics. None of the items were returned to Amazon, the complaint says.

He allegedly issued the refunds during office hours. 

The complaint says Nguyen resigned in March after repeatedly ignoring questions from Amazon about the suspicious activity. 

Amazon issued a statement on Monday saying the company has systems in place to detect suspicious behavior.

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In his role, Nguyen was allowed to manually issue refunds to Amazon customers. He allegedly issued 318 refunds for orders purchased through eight different Amazon accounts. None of the items were returned to Amazon, the complaint says

They started investigating after being alerted to the suspicious refunds.

Amazon reported him to the FBI in July.   

'We thank the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation for their swift work to the hold this fraudster accountable,' a spokesperson said.

'There is no place for misconduct or fraud at Amazon. We hold our employees to a high bar, have systems in place to proactively prevent fraud, continue to monitor activity, and will pursue all measures to protect our store and hold bad actors accountable.'

Separately, Nguyen is also the subject of an Securities and Exchange Commission investigation for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to trade securities without sufficient funds. 

The scheme, which involved two others, caused a total of over $1 million in losses for eight brokerage firms, the SEC alleges.