NetApp May Need to Tighten Up Own Internal Security

I don’t know how in the world she expected to get away with something like this, since the paper and digital trail is so well-policed, but she did it anyway. Why it took four years to track down is another question.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Oct. 18 that the former travel manager for storage vendor Network Appliance has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court for charging more than $70,000 in personal expenses to a company credit card — including private-school tuition for her son.

In September 2003 — just before she left the company — Bernadette Escue, 41, of San Francisco, charged $12,900 to a J.P. Morgan Chase credit card issued by the company for a tuition payment to the Drew School, a private high school in San Francisco, federal prosecutors said.

From February 2001 to October 2003, Escue charged at least $70,000 to the credit card and other cards issued to her for personal expenses, authorities said. Um, who was at the internal controls here?

She is to be sentenced Jan. 30 by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, the Chronicle reported.

NetApp, naturally, is not saying much about Escue. “She left our employ in 2003, and that’s about all we can say,” a spokesperson told The Station. I’m reasonably sure the internal checks and balances have been retuned there by now.