28-year-old Ermenildo Castro is accused of theft and identity theft.
Gary Cole (left) and John McGinley (right) star in Office Space. PDO
A software engineer living in Washington state Ermenildo Castro28, allegedly stole more than $300,000 from his employer by exploiting the film Office Space plot.
Castro worked at the e-commerce company Zulily for about two and a half years. He was fired in the summer.
Castro was charged with theft and identity theft in December.
– Castro used Zulily’s software code to his advantage so that he could steal from the company, the police statement says.
According to the police, Castro injected three types of malicious code into the company’s software.
In this way, according to the police, Castro managed to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from a small part of the company’s customers by transferring the shipping costs paid by them to the accounts he controlled.
In some cases, Castro allegedly charged customers double the price for shipping and sent some of the money to his own account.
He also lowered the prices of certain products significantly, after which he ordered those products to his own personal address.
In five months, Castro had a hand in over 30,000 money transfers.
A folder named OfficeSpace Project was found on Castro’s computer. It included a scheme that allowed Castro to steal shipping costs. Castro admitted during police questioning that he had named the plan after the movie.
The police emphasize that the film’s plot is related to engineers who come up with a plan to transfer fractions of a cent of their employer’s money to their own bank accounts.
Source: New York Post