According to a US federal government complaint filed last week Friday, Ausaf Umar Siddiqui used his position at Fry’s Electronics to set up kick-back deals with electronics vendors.  The deals had Fry’s paying over 30% or more for equipment, including flash drives and network routers, with kick-back money going into a shell company owned by Siddiqui.

The feds claim that Siddiqui embezzled more than $65 million from Fry’s under this scheme, and has paid more than $120 million to three Las Vegas casinos since 2005.

Like everyone else in the Silicon Valley, I shop at Fry’s pretty often – sometimes as much as three or four times a month.  This story leaves me wondering: is that why the prices for routers and flash drives at Fry’s are so high compared to everywhere else?  It sure would explain a lot!

[c/o SF Chronicle]

Filed under: Hardware, Offbeat