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.
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As Head of Risk Management, Laura Levenstein has responsibility for BAM's risk management strategy and its oversight, including acting as chair of the Enterprise Risk Committee. Laura also serves on the Management, Underwriting and Credit Policy and Surveillance Committees. Before joining BAM, she was Senior Managing Director for Global Public, Project and Infrastructure Finance, which includes US public finance, global sub-sovereign, sovereign, project and infrastructure finance, at Moody's Investors Service. In that position, as part of the evaluation of the various rated entities, she was responsible for evaluating all types of risk in these sectors to the extent it could impact the entities' credit profiles. Laura was also responsible for managing all aspects of the rating business relevant to those sectors including, rating assignment, rating methodologies, process operations, strategy, financial performance, rating quality and reputational risks. Prior positions in her over 20-year career at Moody's included Senior Managing Director for Americas and Global Financial Institutions. Laura holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Cornell University.
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:
