The Guam Daily Post Feb 8, 2019
A complaint filed Thursday in the Superior Court of Guam alleges that two employees of Kmart Guam were responsible for a card scam that cost the struggling retailer $117,600.
The employees, Candelaria Blas and Gerard Pangelinan, were employed as "loss prevention team members" at the store. Their job was supposed to keep the retailer from losing money through thefts.
A Kmart internal investigation found that Blas used prepaid cards that allowed her to get $77,100 in "cash back" between May 23 and Aug. 8, 2018, court documents filed by the prosecution state.
Pangelinan had four cards allegedly linked to him with $40,550 in "cash back" transactions between July 12 and Aug. 8, 2018.
Cash back
The prepaid cards allowed the defendants to get $50 cash back but each time the card reflected a transaction of only 50 cents, court documents state.
Blas had conducted 865 transactions and Pangelinan had about 811 transactions, the court documents state.
Blas allegedly acknowledged during the investigation that a load of $50 on a prepaid card could get up to $2,000 in cash back, and the card could be used over and over again.
The defendants provided statements during the Kmart internal investigation, which police reviewed.
In his statement, Pangelinan said he didn't feel like he was doing anything wrong and thought Kmart was getting its money back.