A former Home Depot manager is accused of running a fraud scheme at the two stores he worked for in Miami, leading the company to lose over four million dollars, prosecutors say. <\/p>\n
Mauricio Jimenez, 48, is facing organized fraud and first-degree grand theft charges for allegedly running this scheme for 28 months, from December 2023 until April 2026, according to his arrest report. <\/p>\n
The arrest report alleges that he was marking down multiple items and stacking them on orders for the accounts that he would repeatedly personally deal with. <\/p>\n
The store first noticed it when Jimenez was working at a location in Hialeah, but it took a dramatic upturn after he moved to his current store in Flagler, the report alleges. <\/p>\n
Jimenez appeared in bond court on Wednesday, with his attorney telling the court that he was not stealing. <\/p>\n
“Your honor, there’s nothing that says that he is receiving any kickbacks, like he was getting any benefit from this,” Melissa Ramos, his defense attorney, said. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors, on the other hand, argued that it was more than just discounts. <\/p>\n
“By increasing his sales using those discounts, he was compensated with larger bonuses. So I believe that there would be probable cause on both counts,” the prosecutor said. <\/p>\n
In the arrest form, it said that the markdowns created a “negative sales margin of about $4.3 million for these accounts.” Detectives say this “indicates that not only was no money made on these sales, but it cost the Home Depot over 4 million dollars to sell to these accounts.” <\/p>\n
Judge Mindy Glazer found probable cause, stating, “he was compensated by Home Depot with larger bonuses because of higher sales.” <\/p>\n
She set his bond at $15,000 and ordered him to stay away from Home Depot. He has since bonded out of jail and was released from custody.\u00a0<\/p>\n