Ex-Milwaukee Tool Employee Charged with Theft of Over $1 million in Tools
A former Milwaukee Tool employee is facing multiple criminal charges after he allegedly stole more than $1 million in tools by shipping them to himself without paying.
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Matthew Yang, of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, who had worked in the IT department at the company, reportedly used his access to create fraudulent orders and then delete them from the system.
From March 2024 to March 2025, Yang reportedly created 115 orders, with no payments ever being made. Of those orders, 109 shipments, valued at nearly $1.1 million, were delivered to his apartment.
The number of orders increased between January 2025 and March 2025, presumably due to the company’s intent to end its employee discount program in April 2025.
The scheme went undetected for over a year until a shipper inquired about nearly 9,000 pounds of tools being delivered to Yang’s apartment. The carrier was questioning the delivery of that much product to a residential address.
Upon review, Milwaukee Tool customer service was unable to find the order in its system.
In addition to receiving delivery of products, the investigation revealed that Yang may have been involved in selling the stolen products to Milwaukee Tool business customers based on information found on his computer.
Yang now faces a total of 14 charges including 11 felonies relating to his defrauding of the company. Charges include multiple counts of misdemeanor and felony theft, including one of more than $100,000, as well as computer crimes charges.
According to court records, he faces up to 98 years and three months in prison and fines totaling $260,000 if convicted on all counts. Yang also would have to forfeit any money he gained through the crimes.
Information for this report was gathered from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WISN 12 News.
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