I was browsing Fortune/CNN's list of the dumbest of the dumb business moments for the past year, and one that just jumped off the page was not any major corporate malfeasance, but the sad story of one Anthony Armatys, who found a little extra in his wallet, courtesy of Avaya.
It seems that, in 2002, Armatys accepted a 6-figure job with Avaya.
At the last moment, he decided not to take the position.
Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes a better offer comes in. Sometimes you get cold feet. Sometimes your current employer sweetens the pot and, aww, you really wanted to stay put, anyway.
The first day I worked at Wang I would have quit, if my PC had been working and I could have written a resignation letter. (I ended up staying for two-and-a-half none-too-happy years. If only that PC had been working....)
Problem was, Avaya had him in their payroll system for direct deposit into his checking account. Which they did for over 4 years, to the tune of $470K.
Which Armatys blithely accepted.
In October, he pleaded guilty. Now he's been ordered to repay the nil-gotten gains, and, when he is sentenced in January, he could face 6 years in the slammer.
Bad news, Anthony. I don't think there are any 6-figure, no show jobs in the stir.
You may get paid 20 cents an hour to stamp license plates, fold laundry, or work in a call center. But I'm guessing they're pretty strict about showing up.
Sure, there'll be mornings when you want to turn off the alarm clock - which, come to think of it, will probably be a claxon in the corridor - roll over on your 2 inch mattress and catch a few more ZZZ's. Mornings when you just can't face the idea of putting on the old orange jump suit and falling into line with all the other drones, heading to their boring, monotonous job.
But when that happens, my guess is you don't get paid your 20 cents an hour.
And you probably get points taken off your good behavior for bad attitude, that will make any quasi-negative performance review you got seem like nothing - no matter how much you fretted over and/or bitched about it at the time.
One, of course, has to wonder what kind of controls Avaya had in place that allowed this to happen.
Didn't someone have to sign off on a yearly increase?
Apparently, Armatys was taken out of the HR system, but left in the payroll system. Which kept spitting out those direct deposits. Not to mention donations to Armatys' 401K system. (Bet they've got a control in place now, don't you think.)
It's the 401K that tripped him up, by the way.
Not content to have scammed nearly half a million, Armatys tried to make an early withdrawal. (Wonder what he said he needed the money for. Legal fees?)
Anyway, someone checked around and discovered that Armatys had never actually been employed by Avaya.
So, this guy - who's only 35 years old - may be headed for jail, where he'll have plenty of time to run this situation through his head (when he's not folding laundry for 20 cents an hour).
What was he thinking the first time the money showed up? Act of God? Miscalculation on his part - say, I didn't know I had another $2K around. Maybe he figured, they'll figure it out, it's their problem, not mine. Maybe he figured, what's $2K to them? Maybe he never thought the second payment would show up. And then it did. And then the third one was in there...
Free money! Yippee!
It may have all added up to a nicer home, cooler cars, and swank vacations for Armatys.
He forgot to subtract out the fact that the money wasn't his to begin with.
So, now he's got a record - this has to be a felony, no?; he may be going to jail; and he's going to have a hard time convincing a potential employer to take a chance on him.
Boy, is he ever going to be sorry that he shot that application into Avaya to begin with.
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