A former Amazon worker fired by the company has been arrested by federal authorities after allegedly defrauding the company, it said.
A criminal complaint filed in an Arizona district court Amazon claims Vu Anh Nguyen gained access to Amazon's database and issued more than $96,000 in refunds to himself and others for products ordered on Amazon.com.
Nguyen, employed as a sales support associate, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after the company reported him to the authorities in July.
In a statement, the online retailer said there's "no place for fraud or misconduct at Amazon," adding that the company holds its personnel to "a high bar," and has measures to prevent any wrongdoing, Business Insider quoted the company as saying.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft against Nguyen, court filings showed.
Nguyen's job involved supporting the company's third-party merchants and assisting in making and managing seller listings using a "spoofer" account which enables Amazon staff to monitor and edit third-party vendor accounts.
Amazon staff can access the system through these seller accounts and manually give permission to refund items ordered from third-party vendors, the complaint says.
Nguyen is accused of creating and using eight fake buyer accounts to buy top of the line computers and other devices before issuing more than 300 refunds through the accounts, filtering the money to himself and colleagues without returning the purchased items.
He also used two third-party seller accounts, ItemsQuest and Bullsy, where Amazon refunds were given to orders that he shipped to his own residence or others to which he had information and access.
Amazon said Nguyen was caught after the buyer accounts were traced, and authorities said electronic records indicated he made the transactions from the company's office while he was on duty.
Nguyen was terminated March 24 this year after he ignored attempts to discuss his activity.
