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.
Scott Beeman joined Aflac as senior vice president; president of Premier Life, Absence and Disability Solutions (PLADS) in 2020, responsible for leading all aspects of Aflac’s PLADS business. With more than 20 years of leadership experience in the insurance and health care industry, Scott is a visionary with a proven track record of channeling his passion and creativity not only into driving revenue and profitable growth, but also into instituting scalable and sustainable infrastructures and leading the pace and progress of restructurings, product development, and organizational change management programs to realize growth and create new value.
Prior to joining Aflac, Scott was president and chief operating officer of Benefit Harbor Insurance Services, LLC. He also previously served as head of Business Strategy, Operations and IT for the Life, Disability and Absence Management program at Zurich, responsible for the creation of the overall strategic value proposition and execution of its life insurance and disability operations with emphasis on the growth of the group life insurance business. Prior to joining Zurich, Scott held numerous leadership positions with Aetna, including head of Life and Long Term Care Businesses and chief executive officer of Aetna Workforce Availability, where he successfully demonstrated the ability to launch and exponentially grow both new and well established businesses. Prior to joining Aetna, Scott held positions of increasing responsibility in various sectors of the health care industry. He previously co-founded his own company, specializing in Internet-based information systems for the high-tech medical equipment sector, which he successfully negotiated for sale in 2001.
Within his local community, Scott serves on the board of The Cove Center for Grieving Children. He holds a Bachelor of Science in health policy and management from Providence College in Rhode Island and earned a certificate of professional development in executive leadership from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Marla Willner is the head of commercial credit management and strategic Initiatives for TD Bank. She is also executive sponsor of the bank's Women in Leadership Employee Group.
Kerry L. Myers is a clinical professor of forensic accounting and law at the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy at the University of South Florida. He is also assigned to the Florida Center for Cybersecurity at the University of South Florida. He earned his Juris Doctorate, with Distinction, from the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration-Accounting, Summa Cum Laude, from Central Missouri University. He is a licensed attorney in Missouri where he practiced law and was a federal prosecutor for many years. He recently retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation where he served as the supervisory special agent of the Technical Operations Squad.
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:
