We found out in the finale of season 3 that Ryan was chosen to replace Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) at corporate, which sent him on a serious power trip. Once the lowest-level office member at Dunder Mifflin Scranton, Ryan was now in charge of his former colleagues, and significantly younger than most of them. While he had some great ideas as the new VP of Northeastern Sales, like updating the company's website and allowing customers to order and buy online, one decision he made wasn't the best.
When the website wasn't performing as well as he wanted it to, while also being infiltrated by sexual predators in its social media feature, Ryan decided to make it look like everything was going just fine when it wasn't. In the season 4 finale, Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton) found a YouTube video of Ryan being arrested at corporate, as he had committed fraud. Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) broke it all down in a talking head interview, noting that Ryan was logging sales twice, therefore misleading the shareholders — a very big no-no. Ryan was released and eventually sentenced with community service, and it wasn't long before he was back at Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch.
