Inside $4.3 Million Home Depot Fraud Scheme: How Manager Allegedly Exploited Discounts

A 48-year-old Florida Home Depot manager has been accused of orchestrating a “deliberate”, “systematic” and “ongoing fraud scheme” for nearly three years, allegedly causing the company losses of $4.3 million.

Mauricio Jimenez faces charges of organized fraud and first-degree grand theft, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by USA Today. Authorities say he carried out the scheme across two stores in Florida.

Jimenez allegedly slashed the price of at least 4,500 transactions — totaling to $55 million, according to The New York Post.

He was taken into custody on April 21, with investigators alleging the scam began in 2023.

Authorities began investigating after the Home Depot Assurance & Advisory Management Program discovered a “high quality, high value, high markdown order” during a visit to one of Jimenez’s previous stores in Hialeah Gardens.

Store leadership flagged the order and observed multiple transactions involving Jimenez.

As a store manager, Jimenez had the authority to approve pricing adjustments, including markdowns, and had access to look at internal sales and inventory systems, according to the arrest affidavit.

Investigators found that Jimenez allegedly approved excessive markdowns conducted for repeat customers. Store leaders flagged “irregularities in high‑volume bulk transactions” originating from his store.

Jimenez was “engaged in a deliberate, systematic, and ongoing scheme to defraud Home Depot,” court documents said.

The markdowns allegedly created “a negative sales margin of around $4.3 million to these accounts.”

During his appearance in bond court on April 22, Jimenez’s attorney, Melissa Ramos, said her client’s actions did not constitute theft.

“There’s nothing that says that he is receiving any kickbacks, like he was getting any benefit from this,” Ramos told Judge Mindy Glazer, according to CBS News Miami.

“By increasing his sales using those discounts, he was compensated with larger bonuses. So I believe that there would be probable cause on both counts,” the prosecutor argued.

The judge later found probable cause and set his bond at $15,000. He was ordered to stay away from Home Depot.

Jimenez was later released from custody on bond.