Koda to make changes to payment system after $263,000 misappropriated by former employee

The sum was allegedly misappropriated by an employee in the IT department of subsidiary Commune Lifestyle.

Furniture ODM manufacturer and brand owner Koda BJZ has completed the first phase of its independent review of the $263,000 allegedly misappropriated by an employee of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Commune Lifestyle.

On Nov 1, the company announced it had discovered fraudulent behaviour by an employee in the IT department of Commune Lifestyle. According to Koda, the employee, who was an administrator for the subsidiary’s payment gateway system, made unauthorised changes to the system such that monies received from transactions were deposited into the employee’s own personal account. 

The employee was immediately dismissed and a police report was lodged, with the case still under investigation.

The external consultant engaged for the information security management system and internal procedural policies review of the incident identified certain low-risk rated findings. The consultant also recommended that Commune Lifestyle should implement a policy which allows authorised account creations in the absence of CEO with regular review of user activities, as well as standardised push notifications within the payment gateway system.

Koda says it agrees with the findings and will address the issues. The company is in the midst of conducting a second phase review relating to the IT governance, risk and compliance analysis for all the integrated payment gateways and systems, including IT system audit relating to receipts collection.

Shares in Koda closed unchanged at 23 cents on Dec 27.