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.
Charles Reiling is president and CEO of CoastalOne, an independent broker-dealer (Coastal Equities) and registered investment advisor (Coastal Investment Advisors) hybrid platform based in Wilmington, Delaware.
Shelly is a Managing Director in BMO Capital Markets where she leads a global team responsible for the first line of defense including Trade Floor Supervision, Business Unit Compliance, AML Operational Risk & Resilience, Crisis Management, Algorithm & Automation Risk, and ESG Risk. The mandate includes preventing loss due to failure in process, people and systems and ensuring the execution of trading and investment banking businesses in compliance with applicable regulations.
In addition, she is focused on integrating data with machine learning and AI to enhance the way we work and make decisions and to focus on real versus perceived risk. She leverages similar technology applied in a different way to design process and organizational efficiencies, influencing across the organization.
Previously, Shelly was the COO for BMO's US Trading business. She has over 25 years of experience across industries. Prior to joining BMO, she was a global COO at Barclays. She has a unique blend of experience in sell-side M&A, corporate infrastructure, risk and in leading large scale regulatory and business transformations.
Shelly earned an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MS from Johns Hopkins University, and a BS from Penn State University. She holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses. She has regulated and non-profit board experience and currently sits on the board of BMO Europe PLC and BMO Harris Investment Co.
She enjoys hiking, fishing, singing, playing guitar and sports.
Deb Franklin is the co-CEO of PEAK6 InsurTech, the insurance operations and technology subsidiary of PEAK6. PEAK6 uses technology to find a better way of doing things. The company’s first tech-based solution was developed in 1997 to optimize options trading and, over the past two decades, the same formula has been used across a range of industries, asset classes and business stages to consistently deliver superior results. Today, PEAK6 seeks transformational opportunities to provide capital and strategic support to entrepreneurs and forward-thinking businesses, helping to unlock potential and activate what is into what ought to be.
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:
