Apple fires some Indians over donation fraud; TANA under scrutiny

Vijayawada/Bengaluru: Apple is reported to have fired some Indian-origin employees, a few of whom are Telugu-speaking, for allegedly misusing the company's matching grants scheme. The programme reportedly involved some staff members working in conjunction with specific charitable organisations, including several connected to the Indian community. These individuals, based in the US, allegedly created donation records and arranged for the funds to be returned to themselves. Some sources told TOI that 50 employees were impacted including about ten Indian employees.

While some media outlets reported that 185 employees were affected, TOI was unable to confirm these figures. Apple has not responded to TOI's email enquiries at the time of going to press. As part of Apple's Matching Gifts Programme, the company matches employees' charitable contributions by matching their monetary donations to eligible non-profit organisations. For every financial contribution an employee makes to a qualified charity, Apple provides an equivalent amount as a matching donation.

In December, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office stated it charged six former non-Indian employees of Apple for a scheme in which they tricked the tech company into matching thousands of dollars in donations to children's charities when they were not, in fact, donating anything. Between July 1, 2018, and April 6, 2021, the defendants allegedly manipulated donations to the charities. "By exploiting Apple's employee gift-matching program, the defendants extracted approximately $152,000 from Apple's programme and overreported around $100,000 in charitable contributions as tax deductions," the statement said.

Staff members contributed donations via Benevity, a third-party donation platform. After an employee submitted their donation, Apple provided matching funds at either 100% or 200%, and Benevity distributed the money to the designated charity. "Kwan (one of the former Apple employees who indulged in fraud) would leverage his position with the charities and reimburse the employees while keeping the matching funds for himself against Apple Charity Matching policy. This deceitful manipulation defrauded both Apple and the State of California, as the employees would then falsely claim these donations as tax deductions," the statement showed.

Concurrent with these events, the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) is under scrutiny from the FBI regarding potential misuse of matching grants from various corporations. The US district court has issued a subpoena to TANA for grand jury testimony. The summons, issued on December 12 for a December 26 appearance, remains unconfirmed by TANA. Sources indicate TANA received a one-month extension. The court order demands documentation of received donations, expenditures, and information about all TANA representatives across various positions from 2019 to 2024. Additionally, it requires records of board meetings, subcommittee sessions, including meeting minutes, agendas, materials, reports, presentations, resolutions, and received documents.

The directive mandated submission of TANA's written policies concerning accounting practices, auditing procedures, internal financial controls, and periodic financial reporting. Documentation was requested for all donations received between 2019 and 2024, encompassing direct contributions and matching programme funds. The grand jury also demanded comprehensive records of all TANA disbursements, specifying recipient details, payment rationale, and the associated bank accounts.

Whilst specific investigation details were absent from the subpoena, sources told TOI that this inquiry forms part of a joint FBI-IRS-DOJ (Federal Bureau of Investigation-Internal Revenue Service-Department of Justice) probe examining potential misappropriation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) matching grants. TOI reached out to TANA's president Niranjan Srungavarapu and its general secretary and executive vice president Naren Kodali via text messages. However, they didn't respond to TOI queries at the time of going to press.