A former Home Depot employee is headed to federal prison after prosecutors say she orchestrated a multimillion-dollar gift card scheme and spent most of the money on gambling.
Federal authorities in Atlanta say 53-year-old Felecia Ingram used her job inside the company’s Store Support Center to quietly siphon off thousands of gift cards over roughly 16 months, beginning in March 2020. Ingram worked as a gift card sales associate, a role that gave her access to the systems and inventory she would later exploit.
Investigators say she took about 8,325 physical gift cards, loading up a total value of roughly $4.08 million.
According to court records, Ingram activated the cards herself. Prosecutors say she used her company computer credentials to generate fake internal orders, making it appear the cards were tied to legitimate corporate events. After activating the cards, she deleted the sham orders in an effort to cover her tracks. Authorities say she then resold the activated cards on the black market for cash.
Exploiting her position for personal gain, this criminal thought she could use her knowledge of her employer’s business practices to conceal a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme.
Robert Donovan, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service Atlanta Field Office
Prosecutors contend most of that money went toward what they described as an “extravagant gambling lifestyle.” They have not specified what type of gambling was involved, but court filings state that the bulk of the proceeds were funneled into that activity.
How the former Home Depot worker’s gambling scheme unraveled
The operation continued for more than a year before anyone caught on. It finally came to light when Home Depot’s internal gift card team spotted inconsistencies in the company’s financial records. Those discrepancies triggered a deeper review, which ultimately led to a joint investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the company.
The investigation uncovered the fraudulent internal orders and traced the activity back to Ingram, according to prosecutors.
On Thursday (February 26), Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. sentenced Ingram to three years and one month in federal prison. She will also serve three years of supervised release once she completes her sentence. In addition, the court ordered her to repay nearly $3.95 million to The Home Depot. Ingram pleaded guilty in May 2025 to one count of access device fraud.
In court filings, prosecutors argued that Ingram deliberately used her familiarity with company systems to both carry out and conceal the theft. “While employed at The Home Depot, the defendant abused the trust placed in her and stole a staggering $4 million from the company,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a press release.
The prosecution is one of several major fraud cases brought this year by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Officials say this case has drawn particular notice because of the scale of the theft and the link prosecutors made between the stolen funds and gambling.
Featured image: Grok
