Cox Communications employee pleads guilty to stealing millions from company
A former vice president of Cox Communications has pleaded guilty to stealing $2.4 million from her the company.
Cox Communications is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, an Atlanta company that owns the Atlanta Journal Constitution and WSB-TV.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, former Cox VP Janet West admitted to profiting from the company’s plans to introduce Gigabit internet into markets around the country.
“Beginning in 2011, West began directing her assistant to make payments on the assistant’s corporate credit card to a third party company for supposed marketing services,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “In reality, a significant portion of these services never actually occurred and the majority of these funds were actually secretly being transferred back to the defendant.
“West repeatedly signed false conflict of interest certifications with Cox Communications that failed to disclose the payments she was making to herself. West caused Cox to make payments totaling $2.4 million to this third party, most of which was then sent back to her. The defendant then used the embezzled funds for her own personal benefit, including making payments on two houses she owned in Arizona. Pursuant to the plea agreement in this case, West agreed to forfeit her interests in both of these houses. “