A former Wiley textbook rep and sales supervisor was arrested in Florida on Wednesday and charged with wire fraud in an elaborate scheme that resulted in the theft of more than $2.8 million in textbooks from the publisher, the Jersey Journal reported.
In a complaint, the FBI charged that Christopher Brock "accessed the corporate systems of Wiley including computers located in New Jersey and diverted more than 16,000 textbooks that he designated as free samples to addresses he controlled," the paper wrote. "To avoid detection in an internal review of his employee records, Brock designated both actual and fabricated professors as the purported recipients of the items and listed his own home address and other addresses that he controlled as alternate shipping addresses for those professors."
Brock sold the textbooks to resellers and spent most of the money on personal expenses, "including high-end home furnishings," the FBI said. In federal court, Brock faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine.