On July 1st
Michael Britt of Brentwood, Missouri, was charged with 13 counts of forgery
resulting in the theft of over $1 million from Gene-Del Printing, a company co-owned by Mr. Britt’s mother and three partners.
The company’s internal
investigation revealed that Mr. Britt’s modus operandi extended over more than five years. It involved making at least 166
cheques out to himself and forging the names of two of the company’s owners on
the cheques. He also stole at
least $25,000 through unauthorized purchases using a company credit card. Mr. Britt later admitted to police that
he had also used the company’s accounting software to conceal the theft by creating
fraudulent invoices for the cheques he forged.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/son-accused-of-stealing-million-from-mother-s-brentwood-printing/article_12abc4db-ea04-5566-9291-bdf5b7888a3b.html
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/son-accused-of-stealing-million-from-mother-s-brentwood-printing/article_12abc4db-ea04-5566-9291-bdf5b7888a3b.html
Since the days when I
managed the Ontario Association of Quick Printers, I have heard too many similar sad
stories from small-printing-business owners with first-hand experience of
embezzlement at their own company.
Usually the perpetrator was someone they thought they knew well and
trusted.
Embezzlement is the
theft of assets or property by a person in a position of trust or
responsibility over those assets. Statistically in such cases, the average amount stolen from small companies is $120,000 (versus just
$10,000 from Fortune 500 companies.) Additionally, employers of fewer than 100 employees and fewer than
three bookkeepers are 100 times more likely to experience employee fraud than
larger companies. The crime often
persists over a number of years and has forced many small companies into
bankruptcy.
Update on 16 September 2013:
Yet another story of embezzlement by an employee of a printing company is all over the news again: in this case, Leona Gebhart, the 68-year-old former comptroller of Henderson's Printing of Altoona, Pennsylvania, has been charged with embezzling at least $151,000 over an 11-year period. I rest my case.
http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/embezzlement-arrest/d/story/V43gfB6tAUCCY2a-gcXPyA http://www.altoona.com/news/print.php?article=1383307
Update on 31 January 2014:
Sadly, two more cases of employee theft have recently come to light at printing companies in Pennsylvania and Oregon. After so many recurring examples, I'm sure you get the point:
How Can You Protect Yourself?
Fortunately, many tried and true internal control systems exist to help you detect and (better still) prevent embezzlement. Some are detailed in the on-line resources included in the links below:
