WAUKESHA COUNTY, Wis. — A former Milwaukee Tool employee was sentenced to five years in prison after being charged with stealing over $1 million worth of tools.
Mathew Yang, 32, pled no contest to five felonies related to theft and computer crime on Friday, Aug. 7. A judge dismissed nine other felony theft charges in a plea deal.
Prosecutors say Yang stole over $1 million in company products by placing fraudulent orders and having them delivered to his Wauwatosa apartment. Yang worked in IT, where he had access to Milwaukee Tool’s ordering system and was able to place the orders without entering payment, then delete them from the system.
A criminal complaint says Yang placed more than 110 separate orders, which added up to 9,000 pounds of tools. Milwaukee Tool was only able to cancel and recover six of the shipments.
Investigators found an Excel spreadsheet titled “selling list” on Yang’s company laptop, which included “selling prices” and “order tabs.” They concluded that Yang may have sold stolen products directly to Milwaukee Tool customers.
A judge sentenced Yang to five years behind bars and five years of extended supervision for one felony count of theft involving property worth more than $100,000. For the other four felony counts, the judge stayed prison sentences and ordered Yang to serve nine years of probation.
Yang was also ordered to pay $1.08 million in restitution to Milwaukee Tool. A seizure of $133,895.38 from Yang’s bank account by the Brookfield Police Department will go towards the restitution owed.
