Motor Association Allegedly Defrauded of Millions by IT Executive Who Bought Office Building, Porsches

How do you buy an Arizona vacation home, a boat, two Porsches and an office building on a $210,000-a-year salary?

According to the CBC, the vice-president of information technology for the Alberta Motor Association managed to find a way, and it sure wasn’t legal. Jim Gladden is accused of draining $8.2 million from the AMA through fake invoices, then spending the money like a high-flying tycoon.

During his eight years at the AMA (18 months as VP of IT), Gladden bought a 2013 Porsche and a Maserati, another 2016 Porsche, a vacation home in Scottsdale, Arizona valued at $520,000, a private home in Edmonton, Alberta valued at $1.6 million, a $50,000 boat, and a $5 million Edmonton office building (as an investment property).

“There is no way that he could be living this lifestyle without conducting what was a brazen and substantial fraud,” Calgary lawyer Munaf Mohamed told an Alberta court last week, according to the CBC.

According to court documents, Gladden was able to pull off the scheme because the AMA trusted him enough to give him sole authority to approve payment of invoices.

Mohamed, who represents the AMA, claims Gladden acquired the money through phony invoices for services bought, but never delivered. The money was then transferred to bank accounts in the U.S. As part of his massive fraud scheme, Gladden reportedly gained access to the email accounts of AMA executives.

The report states that the AMA uncovered the fraud in July, and after evasive actions on the part of the accused, Gladden was fired. With his accounts now frozen, the AMA wants to recoup at least $8.2 million stolen over the last three years. The organization filed a lawsuit against Gladden and his companies.

In a statement issued this morning, the AMA confirmed that an executive was terminated following an internal investigation:

This individual’s alleged irregular financial activity was revealed during a review of financial controls that have been put in place to protect the AMA, our members and customers. The alleged fraudulent activity resulted exclusively from a breach of these internal controls, and in no way compromises the confidentiality of member or customer information. Our organization carries external insurance coverage that will allow us to fully recover the losses.

The AMA says additional controls were put in place “to prevent any future incidents of this type.”

In his LinkedIn profile, Gladden describes himself as a “Results driven Senior IT/Business leader with an outstanding record of delivering complex projects on time and within budget.”

[Image: Porsche Cars North America]