Eduardo C. Partida made hundreds of thousands of dollars from stealing toner cartridges and selling them on.
West Side Today reported on Partida’s guilty plea to tax fraud in South Gate, California, having spent four years between 2005 and 2009 stealing toner cartridges from his employers, selling them on for personal profits, and making a “false statement” on his tax returns as a result.
Partida worked for Ikon Office Solutions West Inc., which provides office supplies in the area, and was assigned to work at Hilton Worldwide’s business office in Beverly Hills, in the mail room, where his duties included “ordering office supplies, handling shipping and receiving, and fixing, office machines”.
From November 2005 onwards, Partida “misappropriated” toner cartridges from the office, selling them on for “personal profit” in the form of cheques, which he deposited in “one of three bank accounts held in his name” and later spent on “personal and family expenses”. Admitting to US District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez that he had “received unreported income” of around $240,990 (€192,233) for the four years, Partida “entered his guilty plea” for the charge of filing a false tax return.
His income cost the US government a tax loss of around $49,000 (€39,086), with $14,600 (€11,646) of his earnings in 2009 the money included in the specific count against him – tax loss in this year for the government was $2,235 (€1,782). He will be sentenced in February next year, with a maximum possible sentence of three years in jail, a fine of $250,000 (€199,421) and a possibility of being “ordered to pay restitution to the government”.