Forensic Accounting Services, LLC
Piecing Together Financial Puzzles®
Stories seem to be appearing more frequently today than ever in the past, perhaps a direct result of the current economic climate, revealing the toll that stress and financial hardship can take on someone’s life.
In one story that appeared recently, a woman facing her daily challenges of several issues, one of which being recently charged with embezzling funds, ended her own life (at age 45), leaving behind her mother and her daughter:
Shopping at a membership wholesale club this weekend, I learned I no longer needed to present my membership card to check out. I simply scanned my card’s bar code using my smart phone, and when I checked out, I simply showed the bar code on my phone to the cashier, who scanned my smart phone screen. I thought back to how I gained access to the store (membership required), and all I did (and ever do) was hold up my card as I whisked past the person at the door (most often not paying close attention to passing patrons anyway) and I was off shopping.
I asked the cashier how she knew it was me. She had no response. I asked her what would prevent me from sharing my card to gain access, and my bar code with all my friends and family, by simply placing my bar code on all of their phones as well. She had no answer. I asked her why any of my friends or family should spend the $35 per person obtaining their own membership card, when they could flash my card to access the store, and use my bar code scanned into their phones to check out. Once again, no answer, just a blank stare at me (as if I were speaking a foreign language).
Cold Case – my favorite show (not that I watch much television) Tonight’s episode – The team probes the death of a woman whose dot.com company crashed. Sitting around the table, reviewing a table covered in financial documents relating to potential insider trading (short selling) of the victim company’s stock Investigator Danny Pino (Scotty Valens) says, “can’t we call some …
$10.4 million embezzlement, $10,400,000, stolen over a little more than three short years, to support a “significant gambling problem?” First, how much investments could a firm manage or maintain to not miss $10.4 million dollars? I am left wondering how this amount was not missed for over three years, and how controls that I would expect implemented by any investment …
Day after day I receive Google notifications containing news articles relating to embezzlement. On any given day, somewhere between twelve and twenty different notifications are delivered to my in-box, some with only one news article or post, while others contain several different cases. It amazes me just how much theft is occurring, and when you take into consideration only one …