Posts Tagged ‘fidelity’

10
Mar/11
23

Less and less surprise me these days… :-(

NUN Accused of Embezzling $850,000 From College, Then Gambling It Away in Atlantic City

“A Catholic nun broke one of the Ten Commandments by embezzling $850,000 from a suburban New York City college and gambling it away in Atlantic City, according to federal prosecutors.”

To read the entire story, here’s the link:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/11/nun-embezzeled-k-college-gambled-away-ac/#ixzz1GFaHx8B6

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22
Feb/11
28

Embezzlements: More Frequent or Better Detect Rate?

I use Google alerts with the key word “embezzlement.”  Google send me emails throughout the day with links to any News stories that appear regarding embezzlement.

I receive anywhere from six to twelve emails, every day, with anywhere from one to five story links within each email.  Many of the stories involve someone being arrested or charged with embezzlement, and the amounts range from thousands of dollars to multi-millions.  The stories also span the globe, with today’s links featuring an embezzlement by a revenue collector in the Fiji Islands, a low level official from China who fled to Canada allegedly with $14 million in embezzled funds, and two individuals in South Korea accused of embezzling $20.6 million.

Today’s links also included a Red Cross chapter, yet another volunteer fire department, and numerous bookkeepers and other individuals within companies here in the United States.

The statistic widely recognized in the fraud community is one in nine (1/9) fraud cases become publicly known, which means for every Google alert I receive, there are eight more that I should receive.  Google doesn’t know about those cases, and never will.  My experience has been this statistic is reasonably accurate.  Most cases are quietly settled and resolved.  Many victim organizations would prefer avoiding the negative publicity that could accompany the news article, and in some cases the publicity could pose a greater negative impact to the organization than the theft itself.  In many cases the embezzled funds are gone, eliminating any change of recovery or restitution from the suspect.  Insurance is the common source of recovery, and once paid, the claim is subrogated to the insurance company to recover from the suspect.  It is also common for the potential cost of the investigation to exceed the potential theft itself, bringing a potential investigation to a quick end.

Given the frequency of Google alerts I have received in the last six months, the question is this: is there more theft and stealing going on today, or are systems and procedures in place to better identify and detect these schemes when they occur, increasing the detection rate as opposed to the incident rate?

Here’s a link to Google News “embezzlement” for today:

http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=embezzlement

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4
Feb/11
9

PTO, School Groups Beware: Rash of Embezzlements Amoung These Groups

In monitoring embezzlement stories received via Google Alerts each day, I have noticed a constant stream of new embezzlement cases involving schools, school groups, PTO groups within schools, and other related victims.

While thefts from these groups are not unusual, the amount of stories related to these groups in the last two weeks is alarming.

“LAKE OSWEGO — A woman who kept the books for a Lake Oswego parent group and two sports clubs was arrested Thursday on accusations of embezzlement.
Ranae Marlee Mason, 45, was accused on the belief she embezzled about $84,000. The baseball group noticed irregularities and audited their books, noting that $5,000 was missing. That led to the other two groups reviewing their accounts. The football league was missing $51,000 and the PTA $30,000.”

“Preston Junior High School Secretary, Idaho.  Allison Kay Hoth, 40, a secretary at Preston Junior High School was arrested and charged with theft for allegedly taking between $30,000 to $40,000 from one of the school accounts over the space of two years.”

“Magnolia Park PTO vows changes after embezzlement.  OCEAN SPRINGS, MS (WLOX) – The Magnolia Park Elementary Parent Teacher Organization in Ocean Springs could soon be changing the way it does business. That word comes a day after the PTO treasurer was arrested and charged with embezzling thousands of dollars from the organization.  Fitts, who volunteered as the PTO treasurer, is accused of taking $20,000 over a six month period.”

And yet another today -

Federal Way youth sports treasurer sentenced in embezzlement

“The former treasurer for three Federal Way youth sports leagues was sentenced today to 30 days in jail and must pay nearly $34,000 in restitution for embezzling funds from the leagues.  Colleen A. Wiley, 44, pleaded guilty Jan. 18 to first-degree theft. Prosecutors say Wiley wrote unauthorized checks and an unauthorized wire transfer totaling $33,967.20 – the restitution she must now pay.  According to court documents, the Federal Way woman stole the money from three leagues between August 2007 and January 2009. The three leagues involved are the Puget Sound Junior Football League, the Federal Way American Little League and Federal Way Junior Football Hawks.”

Here are the URL links to the referenced stories:

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Oswego-PTA-sport-clubs-lose-84K-to-embezzeler-115211694.html

http://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/article_96229af8-2e2b-11e0-bb41-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=13959511

http://blog.thenewstribune.com/crime/2011/02/04/federal-way-youth-sports-treasurer-sentenced-in-embezzlement/

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