Former Home Depot employee facing prison after secret service investigation

FLORIDA – A former Home Depot employee has pleaded guilty in an alleged credit card fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida has announced.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO), Kimyada Latoya Knight, 41, of Jacksonville, has pleaded guilty to credit card fraud. Knight faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison and payment of restitution to Home Depot, the USAO said.

According to court documents, Knight worked in a specialized area of Home Depot (HD) business operations that primarily handled business and customer credit card accounts. Her area of responsibility reportedly included resolving charge disputes and requests for refunds from customers with credit card accounts and other accounts at HD.

An initial review by HD, with follow up investigation by the United States Secret Service, determined that Knight had initiated a large number of fraudulent customer and business refunds between approximately January and August 2019 involving credit card accounts and other accounts at HD.

After processing the allegedly fraudulent transactions, Knight reportedly transferred the payments to accounts she controlled and subsequently used the proceeds, the USAO said.

The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service – Jacksonville Field Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin C. Frein.