Coles staffer accused of stealing $2 million
Supermarket chain Coles has alleged one of its executives transferred nearly $2 million of company funds to entities associated with him.
A Coles spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo Finance that a freezing order was obtained from the Victorian Supreme Court after "irregularities were detected by our internal finance checks".
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Such a move is to stop the employee from selling off his possessions that could be potentially used to recover the alleged losses.
Victoria Police is still investigating the case.
The allegedly fraudulent transactions, as first reported by Fairfax Media, were identified by Coles internally in late July.
A court affidavit reportedly shows 13 suspicious payments that total $1.93 million.
Coles head of corporate business protection Cameron Newell said the transactions under scrutiny either didn't have invoices or had invoices sent from the employee's personal email.
There are also accusations that the staffer faked approvals from his manager to allow payments to go through.
The executive, which Yahoo Finance has chosen not to name, has pulled down his social media accounts in the wake of the scandal.
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