Ohio Man Sentenced to 5 Years for $26.5M Embezzlement

A Central Ohio man has been sentenced to 60 months in prison for embezzling over $26 million from his employer, a Columbus-based furniture company.

Yi He, 36, of Powell, was a long-time and trusted employee of the company, which provides furniture to major retailers like Wayfair, Overstock, Kohls, Walmart, and Ashley. He was solely responsible for payroll and payroll tax-related duties for the company.

Between 2018 and 2022, He embezzled money from the company’s bank account into his own personal and financial investment accounts. He submitted false and fraudulent bank and financial statements to the company’s leadership to remain undetected, including a wire transfer in February 2022 where he wired himself $100,000 and falsified that month’s bank account statement by removing the transaction entirely.

In total, He stole $26.5 million from the company. He also embezzled from an employee incentive LLC that rewarded company employees with 10 or more years of service, stealing an additional $635,000 from the LLC’s bank accounts.

He failed to accurately report his income to the IRS for tax years 2018 through 2021, causing a total tax loss of approximately $6.8 million. He pleaded guilty in August 2023 to committing wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

As part of his sentence, He will pay restitution to his former employer and to the IRS, and he will forfeit a Tesla vehicle. U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison imposed the sentence. The case was prosecuted by Deputy Criminal Chief Jessica W. Knight and announced by Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Karen Wingerd, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).