Be In Control Of Your Controls
The 60 year old former Arizona City of Kingman’s budget analyst pleaded guilty to four counts of felony theft on August 25th! After an internal audit was conducted, the former Kingman employee was immediately terminated in November and arrested in January after being indicted.
It appeared that she stole the money by altering access settings and giving herself sole authority to both initiate and approve the same transactions. She was also accused of misusing a city credit card and transferring money from a JP Morgan Chase city account to cover personal expenses including gambling debt, car payments and credit cards.
Special agents with the State Attorney General’s office and the Federal Department of Homeland Security served search warrants to City Hall and her home which lead to her admitting to the embezzling.
Be In Control Of Your Controls
Have your company perform internal and external audits. If employees are aware that you perform an internal surprise audit this will help remove temptation and increases the chance for fraud detection.
Institute checks and balances and be sure to divide key responsibilities.
Do not let the person initiating a purchase order approve the payment regardless of position in the company.
Know your employees! Be alert to potential theft indicators such as evidence of compulsive gambling, a sudden change in lifestyle, an employee who refuses to take vacation, an employee who is strongly resistant to changes to financial or inventory procedures.
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 Berkley Crime.