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Tiffany's VP Charged with Stealing, Reselling $1.3M in Product

A former Tiffany's executive has been charged with wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property for allegedly stealing over $1.3 million worth of jewelry from her former employer. 

According to the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the New York Office of the FBI, a suspect identified as Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, 46, former Vice President of Ptoduct Development at the high-end jewelry company, was arrested at her Darien home Tuesday morning. 

"As alleged, Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun went from a Vice President at a high-end jewelry company to jewel thief," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. "She abused her access to valuable jewelry in order to steal and then resell over one million dollars’ worth of items that she falsely represented as her own, as the complaint describes. Her arrest shows that no matter how privileged their position in a company, employees who steal will face the full consequences of the law."

According to the Complaint, Lederhaas-Okun worked as VP of Product Development from January 2011 to February 2013. In that position, she was often able to check out jewelry belonging to the company for work-related reasons, like providing the jewelry to potential manufacturers for cost determination.

She allegedly abused he position between November 2012 and February 2013, checking out over 165 pieces of jewelry, including diamond bracelts, platinum or gold diamond earrings, rings and pendants with a $1.2 million price tag. She then sold most or all of the jewelry to another company, the Complaint alleged, a "leading international buyer and reseller of jewelry." The company allegedly paid either Lederhaas-Okun or her husband through transactions arranged by Lederhaas-Okun of a friend working on her behalf.

The Complaint also alleged that Lederhaas-Okun reported $1.5 million worth of jewelry would need to be written off after Tiffany's announced it would be conducting a full physical inventory in November 2012. None of that jewelry was ever returned, as is the usual practice for accounting for jewelry that is damaged or otherwise unsellable and necessary to be written off, the Complaint said.

Lederhaas-Okun allegedly made repeated false statements to the company leading up to her February 2013 termination, including trying to explain away jewelry checked out months ago as only having been checked out recently for a PowerPoint presentation she was working on, though no presentation had been assigned or existed in any way on her computer. She also claimed the jewelry was in a white envelope in her office, but no envelope could be found, the Complaint said.

With one charge of wire fraud and one charge of interstate transportation of stolen property, she faces a combined maximum of 30 years in prison should she be convicted of her crimes. 


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