A former Coles executive has been guilty of stealing $1.9 million from the national grocery company, but the judge ordered him to undergo more psychological testing because of how absurd and unjustified his actions were. Judge Duncan Allen of the County Court expressed surprise that Aaron Baslangic never attempted to hide his tracks, had no big aspirations for the money, and left most of it sitting in a bank account until he was discovered. At Coles Online, Baslangic was a financial executive with the authority to approve up to $75,000 in payments, and at the beginning of 2019, he organized 14 unlawful payments.
Aaron Baslangic Coles
They varied in value from $10,000 to more than $400,000. When payments exceeded his permitted threshold, he changed emails to make it seem as though his supervisor had given the transactions his approval. Some of the payments involved transferring money to the Australian Taxation Office, which was subsequently diverted into his personal accounts, while the majority involved bogus corporations with bank accounts in his name. Additionally, he sent money to the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a BMW dealership, and real estate brokers he used to rent out the property. At upscale stores like Jimmy Choo, Cartier, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and others, he spent nearly $200,000.
He entered a guilty plea to two counts of acquiring property by deceit, gaining financial benefit by deception, and creating a fake document on Wednesday. Baslangic appeared in court via video connection while wearing prison garb and sat with his head lowered or in his hands for most of the proceeding. He has already returned more than $1.3 million to his previous employer. Baslangic’s behavior, according to Judge Allen, was oddly crude, unusual, and unexplainable. He remarked, “Brazen is one term for it, horribly foolish is another. A student in their 12th year might have figured out where this money was going. His mother worked at a bank and his father was a journalist, the court was told, so he hailed from an educated household in Turkey.
After moving to Australia, Baslangic obtained a master’s degree in business administration while still holding a degree in electrical engineering. His wife had a degenerative ailment that rendered her too ill to work at the time of his offense, and according to Baslangic, their marriage was disintegrating. He had some mental health concerns, the court heard, but Judge Allen was shocked by what he called his extremely simple-minded behavior, which was sure to be noticed. He mandated that Baslangic undergo another psychiatric evaluation in the hopes that a doctor may throw some light on the circumstances surrounding his crime and his current mental condition. On August 9, the matter will go back before the judge.