Stop, Thief!
Are your employees robbing you blind?
Ask the average small-business owner if he or she is concerned
about embezzlement, and you'll probably get a response like
"I don't have to worry about that because . . .
" . . . my employees are all good, honest people."
" . . . we're just a small company."
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" . . . my people have all been with me a long time, so I
know whom I can trust."
" . . . we don't handle cash."
If your answer matches any one of these statements, you're
probably operating under a few misconceptions-misconceptions that
could prove deadly to your business. You may believe that if there
were an embezzler in your company, you'd somehow intuitively
know it. You may believe an employee's attitude and demeanor
are sufficient proof that he or she can be trusted with large sums
of money. And you may not realize how common embezzlement is in
small businesses.
"Small businesses are at greater risk than large businesses
for embezzlement and other kinds of employee theft," says
Joseph T. Wells, a CPA in Austin, Texas, and chairman of the
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. "In fact, I doubt
there is a business in America that doesn't have thieves
working for it in some capacity."
Because embezzlement appears to be a "clean" crime, it
attracts a wide variety of people, including many who would never
consider other types of crime. For example, psychological profiles
of embezzlers show they are more likely to be female, married, and
span a wider range of ages than other criminals. They are typically
employed with a company for four to eight years before they begin
to embezzle. Frequently, the embezzler is "the last person you
would suspect."
Terri Singer, a CPA with Nemes, Allen & Co. in Bingham
Farms, Michigan, is a certified fraud examiner who has worked in
fraud detection for 14 years and specializes in internal controls
for small businesses.
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