New Jersey Assistant Manager Accused of Running $1.2 Million Ghost Employee Payroll Fraud Scheme!

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A man named Varun Sharma is facing serious legal charges in the United States. He is thirty-one years old and lives in New Jersey. On February 19, 2026, federal authorities arrested him for a major financial crime. He worked as an assistant manager for a large logistics company. He is accused of stealing 1.2 million dollars from his employer. He did this by creating “ghost employees” in the company records. These were fake people who did not actually work for the firm. However, the company paid them regular salaries for a long time.

Varun Sharma was in charge of the payroll system for his department. He added many fake names to the list of active workers. He then linked these fake profiles to his personal bank accounts. The company believed they were paying real staff members for their labor. In reality, the money was going directly to Varun. This scheme lasted for more than two years. He used the stolen funds to live a very expensive lifestyle. He purchased luxury cars and paid for high-end travel. The company finally discovered the fraud during a routine internal audit of its finances.

The police report says that Varun created over ten fake identities. He was very careful at the start of his plan. But he became more aggressive and began taking larger sums of money. The logistics firm noticed that its operational costs were much higher than expected. When managers reviewed the employee files, they found a strange pattern. Several workers had the same home address as Varun. He had even used names of his own relatives to create some of the fake accounts.

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Now, Varun Sharma is charged with wire fraud and money laundering. He is waiting for his trial in a New Jersey federal court. The US government has frozen his assets to recover the missing money. The logistics company is now updating its security rules to prevent more theft. This case is a warning about internal security in big businesses. It shows how one person can cause a massive loss from the inside.