The US Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania has charged a former employee of QVC with allegedly defrauding the retail company of nearly $2 million.

Douglas Rae, who first started to work for the West Chester based company in 1997 as a lighting manager, is facing charges for 25 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy, as well as three counts of money laundering charges. If convicted, fifty-eight year old Rae could spend over 25 years in prison.

In a statement issued to Philadelphia Business Journal QVC stated that “we take reports of unethical or unlawful business conduct on the part of our employees very seriously. We are cooperating fully with the criminal proceeding.”

Michael Keppler of Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Jon Hodde, of Texas have also been charged with wire fraud and conspiracy in the case which claims that the three men have been submitting invoices and getting paid by the company over the period of seven years for services and goods that were never provided.

Investigators on the case claim that the trio worked together in an attempt to swindle QVC out of at least $1.8 million. Allegedly, Rae used his position to control the accounts of Lighting Products International Inc. and Lighting Equipment Sales and Service Inc. These two companies were then contracted and paid for work totaling more than $900,000 from 2006 to 2013, which was never actually completed.

The charges allege that after working on his own for the first year, Rae teamed up with Hodde, using his corporate credit card to purchase, among other items, personal electronics, home appliances, dental services, and airline tickets for himself and his wife for the purpose of traveling to their vacation home.

All of these charges were subsequently submitted to QVC for payment. The retailer then paid over $560,000 to Barbizon Capital Inc., a lighting company based in Alexandria, Virginia and managed by Hodde.

Keppler became involved in the illegal operation in 2010, charging for and receiving over $170,000 from Rae’s employer for services which his company, Keppler Engineers LLC, did not perform. Hodde and Keppler are facing a possibility of up to two decades in prison if convicted on all charges.

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