Miami Home Depot manager’s fraud scheme cost company $4.3 million: MDSO
A Home Depot store manager was arrested Tuesday after repeatedly discounting merchandise, costing the company around $4.3 million, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.
Mauricio Jimenez, 48, was a store manager with authority to approve pricing adjustments at the Home Depot at 7899 West Flagler Street, an arrest affidavit said. He previously worked at a Home Depot in Hialeah Gardens.
An investigation began after a “high quantity, high value, high markdown” was staged at the Hialeah Gardens location, the affidavit said. Jimenez had signed off on several deep merchandise markdowns to repeat customers.
In December, Home Depot Central Investigations was contacted about the quantity, value and velocity of Jimenez’s markdowns on some core accounts, the affidavit said. The high markdowns at the Hialeah Gardens location ceased after Jimenez moved to the Miami location and “then the markdown activity there took a dramatic upturn.”
“In reviewing the manual markdowns, it was observed that the defendant was stacking multiple markdowns on orders for the accounts that he would repeatedly personally deal with,” the affidavit said.
Jimenez’s alleged two-and-a-half-year scheme involved him marking down merchandise for certain core customers to increase sales so he could exceed his sales goals, according to the affidavit.
These core customers were receiving orders marked down to half price or more. Jimenez is accused of engaging in the scheme from December 2023 to April. A review of Home Depot’s transaction records showed the total gross sales to Jimenez’s accounts were around $55 million, but Jimenez marked down the items to around $30 million.
It cost the company over $4 million to sell to these accounts, the affidavit said.
But Jimenez exceeded his personal sales goals, resulting in him being paid larger bonuses.
He had prior warnings from Home Depot leadership and was aware the markdowns were unauthorized and violated company policy, the affidavit said.
Jimenez was arrested Tuesday on charges of organized fraud of $50,000 or more and first-degree grand theft exceeding $100,000. He was being held Wednesday on a $15,000 bond at the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and didn’t have an attorney listed yet.
A spokesperson for Home Depot didn’t respond to a request for comments.
