Ex-Home Depot Worker Sentenced In Kickback Scheme

ATLANTA (AP) — A former Home Depot flooring buyer was sentenced Thursday to 6½ years in federal prison for overseeing a scheme in which foreign vendors paid millions in kickbacks to recieve lucrative contracts to supply the chain.

Anthony Tesvich agreed to pay $8.2 million in restitution for the scheme, which led to the convictions of two other former Home Depot employees and his ex-wife. Tesvich must also forfeit assets he obtained through the fraud, including properties in suburban Atlanta, Desert Hot Springs, Calif., and Mobile, Ala.

He apologized before U.S. District Judge Richard Story handed down the sentence.

"I wish I could turn back the hands of time, but I cannot," Tesvich said.

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said Tesvich masterminded the kickback scheme that hurt Home Depot, its suppliers who played by the rules and its customers.

"This defendant and his co-conspirators inside Home Depot took payoffs from certain foreign vendors in exchange for giving those suppliers' products and unfair advantage in the company's many stores across the country," Nahmias said.