THE NAKED ACCOUNTANT

EMBEZZLEMENT - MY OWN FAMILY MEMBER!!

WE HAD AN EMBEZZLEMENT IN OUR FAMILY!!  GEEZ....and our family is pretty saavy (just ask us!!).  My twin sister's husband was embezzled by his secretary.  Here is her story as she emailed me.......

"You know my husband had a secretary that embezzled over $150,000 from him.  She used......

WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO EMBEZZLE FROM YOU?

EMPLOYEES YOU TRUST!  Maybe even your favorite employee. The one who is there when you arrive and is there when you leave. Such dedication! I am sorry to say it; however, it is absolutely the truth. The reason why is because the criminal mind is very clever. Look at it this way:  Let's say someone is in prison for theft. Their world has gotten really, really small in prison in a small cell. So small that they pay attention to two or three things....very close attention to these few things. After just a short amount of time...............

ANOTHER TRUE EMBEZZLEMENT STORY !!!!!!

This story was written by one of our employees, Curtis, who is an awesome CPA.  I get compliments about him all the time from clients - his efficiency, his courtesy & his effectiveness.  He is a fantastic tax manager, knows his stuff and is my right and left hand guy!  We ALL at our firm appreciate him and do our best to keep him happy.  With nearly 30 years of experience, there is little he has not seen in this world of money, finances & tax!  Here is his true embezzlement story.

It's my experience that embezzlement most of the time start small. I have seen it in its various forms over the years....

One of my clients was a doctor with a healthy general practice. He had an office manager that was with him for 15 years......

PASSWORD PIRANHA--TAKE THE BITE OUT OF EMBEZZLEMENT

MEGHAN IS ONE OF OUR EMPLOYEES AND GRACIOUSLY WROTE THIS EMAIL TO ME FOR THE BLOG.  SHE IS A BRILLIANT, OUTGOING (unusual for an accountant, don't you think!), FRIENDLY AND APPROACHABLE CPA.  SHE GOT MY ATTENTION THE FIRST WEEK SHE WORKED FOR US.  This email is so well written that I am going to copy it exactly as she wrote it........This is great advice!

Jean,

I actually had an “ah-ha” moment the other day about your blog when I went out to visit an old bookkeeping client of mine that I stopped working for over 6 months ago. I was helping him train his 3^rd replacement bookkeeper (eek!), so I went on-site to help her get settled.I discovered, much to my dismay, that he still had...

REVERSE EMBEZZLEMENT! HUH??

The most common embezzlement story is when an employee embezzles from their employer, right? We are taught in our accounting classes some simple internal controls a business can implement to prevent embezzling.

WHO EVER THOUGHT A DESPERATE EMPLOYER WOULD EMBEZZLE FROM AN EMPLOYEE?? I was not even sure what you would call it…reverse embezzlement? Or maybe just theft? In any event, here it is…

AN EMBEZZLER'S CONFESSION !!!!

A courageous (apparently recovered) X-embezzler sent this story in response to my blog. It is a true story and I am reprinting it here exactly as it was emailed to me. I tried to respond using the email they left me but it bounced back.....figures...I didn't expect them to give me the correct email.  However, their email address would have been safe with me as I only wanted to thank them for enhancing my blog by providing the readers with what (allegedly) goes on in the mind of an embezzler............

I was an embezzler and got away with it for 10 years.  Only after I quit my job and we had a child was I approached about the money.  The former employers gave me an amount to pay back that they "thought" was close. I did but they really had no idea as to how much I really took.  In reality is was probably 3 times as much.  Your description of me is very accurate.  What he could have done to prevent it was ........

EMBEZZLEMENT - WHAT'S NEXT????

This embezzlement surprised even me.  In this technological age, internal controls to prevent embezzlement cannot be overemphasized.  Beware of where the door of temptation is left open for anything to happen......even with your own bank!

This embezzler created a bogus business.  The owner of record for this fake business was the embezzler's own mother and the business claimed to be a supplier of building materials. This bogus company set up a bank account at the same bank as the embezzler's employer, a homebuilder.

Can you spot the setup??

NEED + OPPORTUNITY = EMBEZZLEMENT

How do you set yourself up to be embezzled?

• Hire the wrong person  (we hire quickly and fire slowly....this will be another topic later)
• You didn't check their references (sometimes they were fired for embezzling and are counting on you not checking their references...)
• They appear efficient & dependable & in complete control
• They live beyond their means.....

True Embezzlement Story #2

A physician became our client because he had been embezzled by his internal bookkeeper.  We were going to review his books and gather evidence necessary to (hopefully) prosecute the embezzler.  The internal bookkeeper was not sending the payroll taxes to IRS that had been withheld from the employees.  This had apparently been going on for a while.  The client was distraught and felt helpless.  "How could I not have seen this coming?"  "She was always here, so reliable, never took a vacation....always ate lunch at her desk.....

Addition to Embezzlement Story #1

Additional information to add to this story:

This client had very right on intuition because they "knew" something was wrong.  They phoned me and requested a meeting.  In the meeting they were wondering where their money was going.  They made several million a year (net) and did not keep good tabs on their spending.  They asked us to "take a look" at their books.  We discovered their bookkeeper had been embezzling.  They did not immediately give him the pick slip........