embezzlement Archives - All in Investigations

Pete and Repeat Hired the Wrong Employee

We have Clients who have shared their experiences in hiring employees for their company. The first line is “You wouldn’t believe what this employee did? We had no idea they were remotely engaged in that activity. They interviewed so well”. Although we hate to hear this, we are very familiar with a hiring practice that does not include background research. With an unemployment rate as of July 2018 at 3.9% employers are finding it difficult to fill positions. And as a small business owner with less than 50 employees, health insurance to the employee is not a requirement, which makes the hiring process even more difficult for an employer. As a result of just those two factors, employers tend to overlook one of the most [...]

Asset and Financial Investigations for Law Firms

Asset and Financial Investigations are conducted for the purpose of determining if an individual or a Corporation/Company/Business are hiding assets (property or money). Asset Investigations are requested when there is Civil Litigation and or Criminal Proceeding in progress for Divorce, Embezzlement or Judgment. The search is conducted on an individual or a company. The search criteria are specific by Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number for an individual and Company Name and EIN for a Corporation, Organization or Business, or if the business owner’s social security number is linked to the financial institution. The searches can be conducted State by State or Nationwide. An attorney will often request this search to determine if the Defendant/Respondent is hiding assets or has assets they can attach [...]

Discovery, Depositions and Findings

We had a Client, James who started and built a booming business with his longtime friend, Bill. Bill was outgoing, charismatic while James was more laid back and book smart, while both had the desire and knowledge to start a company. For years, growing up, through high school and college, they knew they wanted to work for themselves, didn’t want to report to a boss, wanted to have choices and full control over their own destiny and livelihood. After graduating with degrees in two different fields, they merged their knowledge and started a much needed consulting business in their hometown, just 30 minutes outside of Indianapolis. Twenty years later, they had talked about selling the business someday to spend more time with their families and [...]

What Causes 33% of All Business Bankruptcies?

It isn’t uncommon for the phone to start ringing at at the beginning of calendar quarters - you know, January, April, July and October. We don’t always know who will be on the other end of the line – small business owners, financial officers, or sometimes an attorney. But we know why they are calling – it will be about missing money, theft by employees or employee embezzlement. That’s because quarterly reports are reviewed and something is found that isn’t quite right. Sometimes there is just a suspicion and in those cases, we provide financial forensic experts to thoroughly examine the financial records and processes. No one wants to think there is an employee stealing from the company. In other situations, there is obvious theft [...]

Is it Employee Embezzlement?

A very depressed-looking business owner came in for an appointment at . We are accustomed to clients or prospective clients arriving emotionally charged, either very angry or hurt, but they don’t usually act like this gentleman. Once talking, he explained that he was “darn near just ready to chuck it all in.” He said he was just confounded by what he knew was going on in his company. He just needed proof of it and confirmation of how deep the damage went. Whew. He explained that because his company dealt with many clients coming in for training from out of town, he maintained an apartment for their use doing their stay. It was fully furnished and maintained. What he had discovered was that it had [...]

Protect Your Business from Theft in the Workplace

“I can’t believe I didn’t see it.” Riley had run his own business for years. He’d had hundreds of employees, some of which had stayed for years and retired from his company. So when his attorney brought him in, it was obvious he was both surprised and shocked that he could possibly be in this position. There was strong evidence of embezzlement by an employee. Although he knew theft by employees was a costly problem and touched every business, he didn’t consider a few missing pens or copies being made for some kid’s carwash was a big deal. But this was more than that. This was outright skimming money out of accounts, writing forged checks and manipulating accounts that could only be answered by employee [...]

Is Your Work Environment Cultivating Theft by Employees?

Objectivity is the cornerstone to a private investigator’s work – and success in doing that work. As we discuss here at offices, uncovering the truth is based on facts. We don’t make judgments other than those that help us follow-up or lead us to conclusions to further an investigation. Good investigators are keen observers and study cause and effect as well as patterns and trends. In recognizing patterns we can anticipate what a subject might be likely to do and then be prepared. A good example is in the situation where we are contacted about possible theft by employees. By looking at the work environment we can often determine what kind of clues to look for. Theft in the workplace can include a variety of [...]

Computer Forensics Uncovers Business Embezzlement

For more than a year, Sam and Julie worried about their future as business owners. For some unknown reason, their successful business now struggled financially. Sam spent long nights carefully studying line items on the budget with Steve, their business partner. It was difficult for Julie to finally speak up. But when they again worried about how to survive financially, she admitted her suspicious feelings about their business partner Steve. Julie was insistent that Steve absolutely had to be stealing money. Sam was positive that could not be the problem. Steve had been a long-time friend. He believed there was no way he would do something like this. Besides, Steve was as unstable financially as they were. Plus, since Sam repeatedly examined the financial records [...]

Catching an Internal Thief with Video Technology

Lifelong friends Jeff and Chris came to visit the other day. Jeff is a local business owner who built a successful real estate management company and Chris is his attorney. It was Chris who scheduled the meeting. Jeff really didn’t think it was necessary, but because he trusted Chris, he came along. The thing is that Chris had been working with the accounting firm that handles Jeff's books. He thinks he uncovered some discrepancies, but the accounting checks and balances seem to be in order. According to Chris, there is one common denominator in every record in question – and that is Jeff’s secretary, Margot. Jeff keeps saying that he trusts Margot – she’s worked for him for years – 13 to be exact and [...]

Do You Have a Trail of Paperwork That Reveals Employee Embezzlement?

Employee embezzlement is a major problem, especially for small businesses. I recently read an article by Todd Frankel of the St. Louis Dispatch, “Wave of embezzlement cases hits St. Louis region.” Case after case spoke of employees: Getting reimbursements in “office expenses” Improperly documenting vehicle impound fees and pocketing the money Creating fraudulent invoices and making payments to dummy vendors (themselves) Skimming money by adding a fee to an invoice, then taking the money once the invoice is paid Theft by employees is increasing, according to a poll of the members of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Looking at the cases, embezzlement by employee after employee shows that the theft occurs over a long period of time and is taken in small amounts. Unlike [...]