FTC Lawyer Convicted and Disciplined for Using the Office’s FedEx Account to Send Personal Mail

From NY Lawyer: Seth Zimmerman was an FTC lawyer and an active eBayer. He actively sold Washington Redskins tickets via eBay–a total of 1,100 sales over the course of 3 years, grossing nearly $100,000 in revenues. After he fell behind in ticket deliveries, he caught up by sending 159 FedEx packages of tickets using the office FedEx number, costing the federal government almost $2,000 (FedEx also claimed that the hefty federal government discount meant it had almost $4,000 of foregone revenue). For this, he pled guilty to criminal theft and got a 1 year suspended prison sentence; and the attorney disciplinary board has recommended disbarment. There is a fine line between theft and the tolerated personal use of some office services/supplies. Using office resources to run an eBay business appears to cross that line.