Managers at a New York City import-export company suspected that two employees were robbing it. Corporate Defense Strategies (CDS) of Maywood, New Jersey, advised the firm to plan and install a software program that could secretly log every single stroke of the suspects’ computer keys and send an encrypted e-mail report to CDS. Investigators revealed that the two employees were deleting orders from the corporate books after processing them, pocketing the revenues, and building their own company from within. The programme picked up on their plan to return to the office late one night to steal a large shipment of electronics. Police hid in the rafters of the firm’s warehouse, and when the suspects entered, they were arrested. The pair were charged with embezzling $3 million over two and a half years, a sizable amount of revenue for a $25 million-a-year firm.
The charges that were imposed on the duo were:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → The pair was charged with embezzling $3 million over two and a half years, a sizable amount of revenue for a $25 million-a-year firm.
Option (1) The pair was charged with embezzling $3 million over three and a half years, a sizable amount of revenue for a $25 million-a-year firm. — Incorrect. The period is wrong. The passage says two and a half years.
Option (2) The pair was charged with embezzling $5 million over two and a half years, a sizable amount of revenue for a $25 million-a-year firm. — Incorrect. The amount is wrong. The passage says $3 million.
Option (3) The pair was charged with embezzling $3 million over one and a half years, a sizable amount of revenue for a $25 million-a-year firm. — Incorrect. The period is wrong again.
Option (4) The pair was charged with embezzling $3 million over two and a half years, a sizable amount of revenue for a $25 million-a-year firm. — Correct. The passage states that the two were charged with embezzling $3 million over two and a half years. To embezzle is to steal money one has been trusted with, here by pocketing the revenue from orders deleted from the books.
Note: The passage is the NCERT box ‘Control Through Computer Monitoring’, which has been reproduced by NTA in the exam.
NCERT (2026-27 Edition): “Control Through Computer Monitoring … The programme picked up on their plan to return to the office late one night to steal a large shipment of electronics. Police hid in the rafters of the firm’s warehouse, and when the suspects entered, they were arrested. The pair was charged with embezzling $3 million over two and a half years, a sizable amount of revenue for a $25 million-a-year firm.” |