Former CFO & Treasurer Charged with Embezzling Over $1M

According to the Department of Justice, a former Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for a Lithonia construction company was indicated on June 12, 2018 on federal charges after allegedly embezzling over $1M to pay for her personal expenses.

Prosecutors said that the Former CFO and Treasurer of the employee-owned company issued more than 100 checks to pay for personal purchase including cruises and vacation expenses as well as flights. Special Agent of FBI stated that the woman abused the trust of the company which hired her, causing significant losses to her fellow employees.
Read the full story here for more detail.

Prevent This From Happening to YOU!

Preventing check fraud is no easy task! Here are a few tips to help to help you fight it:

• Supervise your employees closely. When supervision is lax, theft and fraud rates tend to go up. This does not mean looking over their shoulder every minute, but checking on what they do.
• Know your employees. Stay alert to key indicators of potential theft such as lifestyles well above salary levels, sudden devotion to work and working late, and taking short vacations vs long ones.
• Unannounced internal audits. Make unannounced internal audits and have a yearly audit performed by an outside firm.
• Use purchase orders. The payment, receipt and preparation of purchase orders should be separate functions and handled by different individuals.
• Track your business checks. Always use pre-numbered checks. Producing all checks from financial software such as QuickBooks is highly recommended. Have another employee perform monthly audits of checks issued.

Make Sure Your Clients Take a Proactive Approach To Protecting Their Business Should a Loss Occur

Make sure your clients have crime insurance. Take the steps to ensure that your clients are covered by calling one of the Berkley Crime team members listed below.