NY-26: Chris Lee “Hacked Into Company Computer for Personal Gain”

Big story in today’s Buffalo News:

Congressional candidate Chris Lee acknowledged Friday that he was fired from Ingram Micro years ago because he “made a mistake.” Sources familiar with the mistake say he hacked into a company computer for personal gain.

Lee was a young salesman with Ingram Micro, a computer products distributor that in 1989 was known as Ingram Micro D and operated from offices on Elmwood Avenue.

Lee, according to his co-workers at the time, somehow obtained a company credit manager’s password. Then, with that password, he raised the credit limits for some of his customers and the customers of other sales people, the employees said.

That way Lee could sell the customers more of the company’s products, on credit, before the billing system would flag their accounts for payment and halt further purchases.

It might have helped with sales, but it also put the company at greater risk if those customers failed to pay. A few others knew of the scheme, according to one of the former employees, who asked to remain unidentified fearing retaliation from Lee or Republican Party forces.

The irony is almost too great to bear. Chris Lee broke his own company’s rules to extend credit to people who didn’t deserve it, thereby putting his firm at risk. I could not imagine a more perfect echo of today’s credit meltdown. This sordid story might be just enough to make voters in the 26th CD take a second – and unflattering – look at Lee and go with Alice Kryzan instead.