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Fired health care executive sabotaged PPE shipment in Georgia during pandemic, feds say

A 41-year-old man who was let go from his health care company just as the coronavirus pandemic bore down on the U.S. is accused of exacting his revenge by intentionally delaying shipments of personal protective equipment.

Now he’s going to prison.

Christopher Dobbins, the former vice president of finance at Stradis Healthcare in Georgia, was sentenced to one year and one day after he pleaded guilty to fraud activity connected with computers in July, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Tuesday in a news release.

Dobbins was also ordered to pay $221,000 in restitution, prosecutors said.

“As businesses worked to get PPE into the hands of those most in need of it, Dobbins chose to hack his former employer and maliciously interrupt that process,” U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak said in the release. “His actions caused delays in the delivery of desperately needed equipment in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.”

Dobbins was hired at Stradis — a Georgia-based medical device packaging company that also packages PPE — in August 2016 and helped to set up the software that manages its finances and operations, according to court filings.

But escalating tensions between Dobbins and his superiors led to multiple disciplinary actions, court filings state, and he was fired on March 2.

Dobbins subsequently lost access to the computer systems. But three days after receiving his final paycheck on March 26, prosecutors said he was able to log back in using a fake account he created prior to being fired.

He then created a second account to alter and delete thousands of records before deactivating both accounts and logging out — all within 45 minutes, according to court filings.

“The edits and deletions to the company’s records disrupted the company’s shipping processes, causing delays in the delivery of much-needed PPEs to healthcare providers,” prosecutors said.

Investigators traced the IP address behind the fake accounts to Dobbins. He was charged in April and pleaded guilty in July, court filings show.

Prosecutors pushed for harsher sentencing, citing Dobbins’ “sophisticated” scheme and abuse of trust.

But defense attorneys, who sought to avoid prison time with a sentence of home-confinement instead, said the scheme was “far less sophisticated” than what prosecutors insinuated. They also pointed out that many of the shipments Dobbins is accused of sabotaging “did not include PPE and included only medical devices and tools.”

His attorneys said Dobbins’ intent was “to cause an inconvenience and minor disruption to Stradis in hopes of reminding them how valuable of an employee he was,” but said he didn’t anticipate the resulting damages.

“He certainly did not intend or contemplate that his actions may affect healthcare workers supply of PPE during a global pandemic,” court filings state. “His father-in-law’s recent passing from COVID was devastating and, having experienced that loss first-hand, he would never intentionally put others at risk.”

Dobbins conceded in his own letter to the court that he “felt very undervalued” and “deeply betrayed” after being fired.

He also said he was suffering from severe depression after losing several family members and close friends in the months leading up to his termination, and that he “wrongly and unjustifiably lashed out in anger against my former employer.”

“I want to get better. I am finding self-worth in many places now. I would do anything to reverse time and start some things over again,” Dobbins wrote. “I apologize sincerely and deeply for all the hardship.”