William Tye Grisel, 40, the former IT manager of Columbia-based dumpster brokerage Big Red Box, has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for stealing $1,049,996.97 from the company through a fabricated search engine optimization (SEO) scheme. Grisel pled guilty to embezzlement charges tied to a years-long fraud that gutted the small business from within.
From 2014 to 2017, Grisel exploited his role overseeing vendor contracts to create a phantom SEO company, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to a shell entity that delivered zero results. The fake firm existed only on paper and bank records—no staff, no services, no leads. All while Big Red Box, a growing national firm, relied on those services to generate customer traffic.
The theft didn’t just vanish into thin air—it left real wreckage. With over a million siphoned, Big Red Box was forced to cut staff, scale back operations, and absorb losses far beyond the stolen sum. The company lost not only cash but the critical digital visibility the SEO services were meant to provide.
While the company bled, Grisel lived large. He blew stolen funds on luxury cars, extravagant vacations, and even an airplane—luxuries funded entirely by betrayal. His lies were meticulous, his access absolute, and his greed unchecked until internal audits raised red flags and triggered a federal probe.
U.S. District Judge Joe Anderson handed down the 51-month sentence, followed by three years of supervised release. Grisel must also pay $1,050,000 in restitution. There is no parole in the federal system, meaning every month of that sentence will be served behind bars.
The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Winston Holliday and Brook Andrews. “The defendant’s lies and fabrications bilked his employer out of more than $1 million and caused substantial damage,” said U.S. Attorney Peter M. McCoy, Jr. “This office takes these types of crimes seriously.”
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Key Facts
- State: South Carolina
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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