Federal officials accused Eric and Patricia Castaneda of stealing more than 800 laptops from the School of Humanities and Sciences, as first reported by The Mercury News on Wednesday.
Court records claim that the laptops, which were stolen between February 2016 and July 2019, were worth around $2.2 million.
According to prosecutors, Patricia used her position at Stanford to fraudulently purchase Apple MacBooks, which the two then stole and re-sold. On one occasion in 2018, Eric agreed to sell eight MacBooks for $2,250 each.
University spokespeople did not specify what Patricia’s role was at the school, and said no sensitive information was on the laptops when they were stolen.
Contact Michael Espinosa at mesp2021 ‘at’ stanford.edu.