A former finance executive at Bridgestone Americas, Inc. has been taken into custody on charges of wire fraud and money laundering in a scheme to defraud the company of approximately $15 million. Sajju Khatiwada was arrested in connection to a series of false reimbursement invoices he allegedly submitted during his tenure as the company’s Assistant Treasurer, as per a complaint unsealed today.
The complaint, which comes after an announcement from Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Thomas J. Jaworski, outlines Khatiwada’s activities starting in July 2020 when he reportedly created a fake vendor named Paymt-Tech, LLC. His position involved management of credit card processing services, and the invoices in question were supposedly for bank fees related to these services. Khatiwada is said to have sent fraudulent emails containing fake PDF invoices from his Bridgestone email account, a practice that continued monthly until April 2024, when he left the company.
Upon his departure, a decrease in the frequency of bank fee payments raised suspicions among Bridgestone’s accounting staff prompting an investigation. This led to the discovery that 47 bogus invoices had been approved from August 2020 to April 2024, funneling $14,923,978.57 directly to Khatiwada, as stated in
a press release by the Department of Justice
. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Nashville Field Office traced these transactions back to the former executive.
If found guilty of the charges, Khatiwada could face significant prison time: up to 20 years for wire fraud, and up to 10 years for money laundering, in addition to potentially harsh financial penalties. The case, which follows the extensive investigative work by the FBI, is now in the hands of Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Booth, who, will lead the prosecution.
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