I returned home to the San Francisco Bay Area to expect nothing but a couple of weeks of peace and quiet before heading to Las Vegas for CES next month.  What I found instead of peace and quiet was a scandal in which a former Fry's Electronics VP faces serious federal charges after stealing $65 million from his former employer.

After the initial news story broke, more information about his heavy gambling addiction and fancy for fast cars began to surface.

As we learn more about the case, it seems Omar Siddiqui's popular gambling habits in Las Vegas and Atlantic City drew the attention of casino creditors, as he owes millions to several casinos.  According to federal investigators, Siddiqui managed to spend $120 million in just three years at two Las Vegas casinos.

Fry's also is left looking embarrassed, as the company allowed an employee to embezzle so much money, and they even gave him $10 million in loans.  The company didn't say why the company loaned him such a high amount of money, especially considering his salary was just $225,000.  All of the embezzled money flowed through a shell company Siddiqui created to help funnel funds.

A Bay Area businessman hoped to work with Fry's Electronics to have the retailer sell a new iPhone battery, Abbi Vakil was expected to give Siddiqui $20,000, according to Vakil.  

"It just didn't make any sense," Vakil told the San Jose Mercury News.  "How many products would we have to sell to make a profit?  We could have been selling horse manure.  All he cared about was, 'What's in it for me?'"

He's definitely headed towards federal prison, along with the possibility of being shipped to Clark County for a bit of state jail time as well.

An article published in the San Jose Mercury News indicates such kickbacks and embezzlement is common place in foreign markets, which complicates things further.  "There is a lot of corruption out there," O''Melveny & Myers partner Richard Grimes told the newspaper.  "It's hard to change a culture overnight."

The U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are doing their best to try and crackdown on such practices, though both departments know they face an uphill battle.