Former Home Depot Employee Found Not Guilty

Atlanta, GA, Aug. 25, 2010--Former Home Depot employee Ian Jay Evans, accused in a flooring kickback scheme, was found not guilty of a federal offense, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In the trial in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Evans admitted to paying $1.4 million to a Home Depot employee who arranged to buy rugs and other items from Evans from 2002 to 2005.

Evans had formed a logistics company to service Home Depot.

According to the newspaper, Evans' attorney argued that the payments were not a federal offense even if they violated Home Depot policy.

Evans was charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and 17 counts of money laundering.

Last year, Ronald Douglass Matheny, the Home Depot employee who accepted the payments, pleaded guilty to fraud.

The Evans case is part of a larger investigation into kickbacks at the company. Last year, Anthony Tesvich, a former flooring buyer, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison and agreed to pay $8.2 million in restitution for creating a kickback scheme. Also implicated were his ex-wife, Melissa Deaton Tesvich, and other Home Depot employees.

A Home Depot spokesman told the Atlanta newspaper that the company may file civil charges against Evans.