PR managers sentenced for siphoning thousands from Activision

The Daily Mail reports that Activision UK a public relations executive Kathryn Kirton, age 35, has admitted to stealing  £18,963 or $29,000 after being carried away with the ‘glamorous and luxurious’ world of public relations. The co-defendant, Jamie Kaye, who worked for a third-party firm called Frank PR admitted to taking £3,500 for a family vacation to Florida by charging it as a legitimate travel expense and stole 6 iPads. In total Kaye admitted to taking £5,000 ($7,600). These thefts took place back in 2010 and 2011 with money that was intended for promoting the Call of Duty Franchise. It became known when Kirton’s company noticed all the suspicious payments and investigators discovered the fraud in February 2011.

Kirton used £1,000 on a group of friends to spent the night at an exclusive Townhouse Hotel in central London, a romantic two-night stay at a countryside estate with her fiance Lee Kirton for £2,000, an engagement party that cost £1,500 and £9,437 in designer clothes store called Reiss in “one of three shopping sprees”. Kaye, who was assisting with the launch, used the company credit card to make the purchases and attempted to write them off as expenses towards the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Both Kirton and Kaye have pleased guilty to one count of fraud. Kirton was sentenced to 18 months but was spared jail because the ‘devastating effect’ it would have on her young son. Her 2 year old son was born prematurely after her marriage broke down due to the investigation. Her prison sentence was suspended for 2 years. Kaye was sentenced to 9 months that was suspended for 12 months, in addition to 80 hours of unpaid work.

A similar issue happened earlier in the year when former Gamestop VP of Cooperate Communications and Public Affairs, Chris Olivera, was sentenced to 51 months in US federal prison after he pleaded guilty to embezzling over 1.7 million in company funds. This is why we have accountants, to find people like this.  

Source: The Daily Mail

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
Twitter | YouTube| Facebook