Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, a vp for Tiffany & Co. (New York) until she was released in February as part of an overall company downsizing, has been accused of stealing roughly $1.2 million worth of jewelry, beginning in November 2012.
According to The New York Times, she was arrested at her home in Darien, Conn., Tuesday on charges of wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. The charge involved her and her husband selling the merchandise to a leading Manhattan buyer and reseller of jewelry for about $1.3 million.
The complaint states that as vp of product development, Lederhaas-Okun was responsible for ensuring that product designs could be manufactured. In that role, she was allowed to check out jewelry for work-related reasons, like showing it to potential manufacturers to determine the cost of producing it, and to write off the cost of jewelry that had been rendered unusable. Those items were generally returned to the company’s stock and destroyed.
It was Tiffany’s practice to count every item of more than $25,000 in value that was checked out. Authorities said each piece of jewelry that she had checked out – diamond bracelets in 18-karat gold, platinum or gold diamond drop-and-hoop earrings, platinum diamond rings, and platinum and diamond pendants – was valued at less than $10,000.
A criminal complaint filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan says that most of the more than 200 pieces of jewelry sold to the jewelry reseller matched the type and description of items that Lederhaas-Okun had checked out while working at Tiffany and were missing from its inventory. Also, an FBI agent said a review of the Lederhaas-Okun bank account showed that about 75 checks from the jewelry reseller had been deposited.
She had signed a form stating that the diamond bracelets and rings with precious stones in 18-karat gold, and other items that she said were hers “and free of any legal encumbrances.”
The husband has not been charged in the case.