Employees working from home during the coronavirus pandemic claimed some outlandish expenses this year, including pricey exercise bikes, facelifts and private jets.
Emburse, an expense management software company, released a compilation Wednesday of some of the craziest expenses it has seen claimed this year, some of which were actually approved. That included $1,895, which was approved as a contribution for an employee's Peloton Bike under the explanation of “for health and wellness.” On the other hand, a $7,600 expense claim for a facelift was submitted under the category of “repairs and maintenance” but was rejected, despite the pressing need to look one’s best during a Zoom meeting.
Eric Boughner is the chairman of BNY Pennsylvania and regional president of BNY Wealth.
He oversees all client, employee and community activities in Pennsylvania and leads BNY Wealth across the Midwest. He has worked across the financial service industry and joined BNY in 2008 as a portfolio manager in the in the private equity group.
Lewis Rinaudo Cohen is the co-chair of the digital assets and emerging technology practice group at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, known as CahillNXT, which focuses on the use of blockchain, crypto assets and tokenization across all aspects of capital markets and all areas of economic activity. Lewis is a frequent public speaker on the topic of blockchain and the financial markets, and has been included for many years as a "Band 1" practitioner by leading independent firm Chambers and Partners USA.
Jason Rozovsky is head of legal at Interop Labs, the initial developer of the Axelar network, the Web3 interoperability platform. Jason has worked in the blockchain space for nearly a decade, having previously been global legal lead for blockchain at Accenture and assistant general counsel at R3, an enterprise blockchain company.
Some expenses weren’t for working from home, but more about getting out of the house safely. An expense claim for a private jet charter costing over $20,000 was submitted and approved under the explanation of “required to limit COVID exposure for international shoots.” Another travel-related expense claim was $2,500 for a helicopter ride, which was not approved.
The $79 expense claim for a dog crate could perhaps be used for travel at some point when that's safer, but in these times it was more plausibly to provide "crate training [for] a new COVID puppy to not run into Zoom meetings."
Below is an infographic produced by Emburse showing this and several other head-scratching claims:
