Ex-Home Depot rug buyer sentenced in kickback scheme

A second key player in a vendor kickback scheme at Home Depot was sentenced to just under four years in prison on Thursday.

Ronald K. Johnston, 37, a former rug buyer at Home Depot’s Atlanta headquarters, also was ordered to pay nearly $1.8 million in restitution to Home Depot.

Johnston worked for Home Depot from 1991 to 2007 and “rose from being a floor employee … to a high level job,” said federal prosecutor John Fitzpatrick at the sentencing hearing in Atlanta.

Johnston was enlisted by Anthony Tesvich, the alleged mastermind of an elaborate kickback scheme, while sailing on Lake Tahoe. “Apparently Tesvich was a good judge of people,” as Johnston already was taking money from another foreign vendor in exchange for putting its products in Home Depot stores, Fitzpatrick said.

Court documents say that Tesvich — with money from foreign vendors — paid $98,000 for upgrades to Johnston’s Marietta home. Renovations included Sub-Zero appliances, a home gym, and a home theater with a 105-inch projection television.

Johnston, who made $160,000 a year as a rug “product merchant,” also had an expensive habit: horse racing.

Money he took from one foreign vendor — $1.4 million — was funneled into that hobby, said Fitzpatrick.

Johnston pleaded guilty to the allegations, avoiding a trial. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife and two young daughters.

Johnston cried during the hearing but did not directly address the judge.

His attorney, Carl Lietz, told the judge how being prosecuted for these crimes “in some ways has been good for” Johnston. “His priorities were out of whack,” Lietz said.

Johnston’s 46-month sentenced was lighter than James Robinson, who got 63 months on Wednesday.

Unlike Robinson, a tile buyer, Johnston paid taxes on $1.4 million of the bribery money because the vendor filed a 1099 tax form. That made Johnston qualify for lower federal sentencing guidelines.

Lietz asked that his client be put into the federal prison’s alcohol and drug treatment program. Both Johnston and Robinson will be subject to three years of federal supervised release once they serve their prison time. Both likely will serve their time in federal prison camps.

So far, Judge Richard Story has ordered nearly $2.9 million in restitution to be paid to Home Depot by the two defendants.

Tesvich, a former Home Depot manager, will be sentenced in June.