Former GameStop PR chief confesses to stealing $2M from the game retailer

Former GameStop vice president Chris Olivera has pleaded guilty to embezzling $2 million from the world’s biggest game retailer, according to the Dallas Observer.

As vice president of corporate communications and public affairs for GameStop, Olivera was the public face for a company that wields huge influence over the game business with more than 6,000 stores. But now he faces up to 20 years in prison.

A spokesman for GameStop told Kotaku, “Mr. Olivera was terminated last year and GameStop has fully and completely cooperated with the government’s investigation.”

Olivera admitted to abusing his position at GameStop to transfer massive amounts of money from GameStop to Cloud Communications, LLC, a Nevada-based corporation with offices in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Calif., and Canada. He created an imaginary representative, Jennifer Miller, to cover up the payments to a company he controlled. The company existed only on paper. GameStop officials began to suspect Olivera was cashing the checks made to Cloud Communications and federal investigators verified that.

He continued to embezzle money from July 2009 through April 2011. Olivera pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud. That carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine. It’s worth noting that Olivera’s position was a vice president probably earned him pretty good compensation.