Posts Tagged ‘employee fraud’

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8
Jul/100

Can You Prevent Employee Embezzlements?

The answer is yes, most employee embezzlement schemes can be prevented. There are practical measures any employer of any size can implement to prevent employee thefts and embezzlement.

However, due to the very nature of fraud, creative employees working within an environment constructed with ineffective or non-existent internal controls, or worse, complacent supervisors and owners who simply do not perform the reviews and control measures, often circumvent any preventive measures.

That is why detection measures need to be incorporated within the control structure, to detect a scheme as early as possible, and to minimize the loss to the organization.  Together preventive controls coupled with detection measures are any employer’s best line of offense against the risk of employee embezzlement.

The third and possibly the most important component is to ensure the organization has adequate employee dishonesty coverage.  When an employee circumvents both preventive and detection measures, the losses add up, and very often the only means to recover the diverted funds is through an insurance claim. Adequacy in this day and age should start at $100,000, but is subjective to each organization.

Last Monday my latest book was released by Wiley, Preventing and Detecting Employee Theft and Embezzlement: A Practical Guide. I encourage everyone who has employees, or who is responsible for employees within the financial areas of any business or organization, to read my latest book. While it appears to be a bit of self-promoting, I wrote this book in response to twenty years of requests from business owners and managers who direly needed a practical resource to easily follow for implementing internal controls within their business. Well, now it exists.

The book can be found anywhere on-line where books are sold. Here is one link for Amazon.

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23
Feb/109

Jean Chatzky’s Blog: Ask Jean Tuesday: Free Yourself from Fraud

I was honored and humbled when I received an email out of the blue yesterday requesting assistance on a fraud related matter.

I have received many requests from all sorts of sources over the years, many from individuals or organizations who have fallen victim to some type of fraud or financial crime.  Still more inquiries come from individuals suffering through a divorce, struggling to determine how to identify their former spouse’s true income and assets.  Often I never hear from the person who requested the information, and I never know if what I provided was even helpful.  It’s a fine line between deciding to invest the time in responding to inquires versus ignoring them due to time limitations.

Yesterday’s request was unique in that the information I provided was incorporated into a response to a reader’s plea for assistance with their fraud issues – posted within Jean Chatzky’s blog post.  Certainly the highlight of my month!

I thought the blog post did an excellent job providing the reader with useful direction and resources to deal with being a victim of a financial crime.

Thank you Jean for incorporating my input in your blog.

Here’s the link to Jean’s blog post:

http://www.jeanchatzky.com/homepage/ask-jean-tuesday-free-yourself-from-fraud/#more-2848

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Filed under Battle on Fraud 9 Comments »

21
Feb/103

Great Article – Theft of Receipts Schemes Thriving

This article appearing February 21, 2010 illustrates two key points I highlight in my writing and speaking. First – theft of cash receipts schemes continues to be the method of choice, stealing payments intended to employers and diverting them for personal use. Second – sharing information during an investigation often leads to additional discoveries and information.

This individual was accused of stealing $171,000 in payments payable to the organization, a non-profit working with disabled children no less. Then, by sharing information with the individual’s prior employer, the prior employer discovered the same individual had stolen $335,000 in payments intended to them. Further, the same individual faces yet more charges for theft in a third context here in Connecticut.

Attorneys often provide advice, rightfully so, suggesting that communications be maintained to a minimum to limit potential exposure to the victim organization. However, if sharing of information and discussions with previous and successor employers does not occur, potential actions and thefts of an individual could go undetected forever. It is common for someone to steal, go undetected or go unprosecuted, only to obtain future employment and steal again, commonly using the same schemes of the past.

Thefts of cash receipts and payments have been the most common schemes I have encountered in the last few years.  I am convinced the ATMs and other automated depositing processes have contributed in large part to this, as the checks payable to the employer are easily deposited directly into the suspect’s account. Controls are critical for every organization over the cash receipts and deposit processes for these reasons.

Read the entire article >

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Filed under Beyond Fraud 3 Comments »

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