Former Assistant Treasurer for Bridgestone Americas Arrested and Charged with a $15 Million Wire Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme

NASHVILLE -A criminal complaint unsealed today charges Sajju Khatiwada, 43, of Franklin, Tennessee, with wire fraud and money laundering for conducting a scheme in which he submitted approximately $15 million in bogus reimbursement invoices to his employer, Bridgestone Americas, Inc., for payments to himself, announced Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Thomas J. Jaworski.

According to the complaint, starting in 2016, Khatiwada was employed by Bridgestone in various positions, and he was working as Bridgestone's Assistant Treasurer, Capital Planning and Funding, when he left the company in April 2024. Khatiwada was responsible for managing the relationships with banks that provided credit card processing services at each of the retail Bridgestone locations across the United States, acting as a liaison with bank representatives and initiating payments for bank fees and credit card processing fees.

In July 2020, Khatiwada created a phony vendor called Paymt-Tech, LLC and began submitting bogus invoices to Bridgestone for purported bank fees owed to Paymt-Tech. Each month from August 2020 to April 2024, Khatiwada sent an email from his Bridgestone email account to initiate a payment to Paymt-Tech, LLC for the fictitious monthly bank fees. The email would contain a bogus PDF invoice and would request payment of the invoice. Bridgestone approved payment of these invoices, believing they were for true bank fees for a legitimate vendor, Chase Paymentech.

In April 2024, Khatiwada left his employment at Bridgestone. Approximately two months later, Bridgestone Accounting Department personnel questioned the significant decrease in monthly bank fees being paid by Bridgestone. The subsequent investigation identified that between August 2020 and April 2024, Khatiwada had submitted 47 false invoices to Bridgestone for a total amount paid of $14,923,978.57, which the FBI traced back to Khatiwada.

If convicted, Khatiwada faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud count and 10 years in federal prison on the money laundering count, and a fine of up to twice the value of the money laundered.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Nashville Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Booth is prosecuting the case.

A federal complaint is merely an allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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