A Tempe, Arizona, Home Depot employee is facing a federal charge, after authorities said he repeatedly took cash from the store and replaced it with counterfeit currency before depositing it in the bank, according to a criminal complaint.
Highlights
- Adrian Jean Pineda, a vault employee at the store, was responsible for counting cash and preparing it for deposit.
- He is accused of ordering counterfeit bills from Amazon, swapping them with money taken from store cash registers and sealing them in bags for transfer to the bank.
- Between January 2018 and January 2022, Home Depot recorded $387,000 in losses due to counterfeit notes in their bank deposits, the Secret Service said.
- Pinede admitted to switching the real money with fake bills in an interview with Secret Service agents, the complaint said.
- He was assigned a public defender, but CNN has reached out to his attorney but has not received a response.