Corporate Fraud and trust relationships in Atlanta GA

In my over 30 years of experience in corporate fraud investigation a sad but simple reality had come to my attention. Management uses the wrong kind of trust when dealing with employees, assets, cash and the rest. I have finished the employee theft investigation, the employee has confessed and we are filing criminal charges. At that point the manager or owner says something like “I trusted that person”.

They feel guilty, are angry and question their own skills. They often feel as if they should have seen the employee theft coming. It is not their skills that they should be questioning. In this world there are two kinds of trust: personal trust and business trust.

Personal trust is the kind you have with your best buddy. They are always there for you and you for them.

Business trust is defined in three words: Trust But Verify. That’s it! You do not have the luxury of doing anything else.

The most reasons that we end up doing a corporate fraud investigation is that management uses personal trust in a business environment. They simply don’t see their “friends” being involved in employee theft. This is business not personal and if your management style is to be “friends” with your employee then you should probably change careers. You are responsible for an incredible amount of assets and liability and if employee theft is occurring because you’re using the wrong kind of trust with your employees you are responsible. As a professional you realize that you must protect those assets to keep the company profitable, which insures that, your employees have a job.

To do this you must trust but verify. I am not advocating that you are always watching over people’s shoulders. In fact a healthy work environment gives employees the ability to grow and do things in their own style. So what do you do? Here is an example; you receive a shipment. The person who is responsible for checking it in is almost finished. Pull part of the paperwork and recheck 10% of it. When they say to you “I just did that” you reply, “ It looks like you did a great job too, it is accurate, thank you and good work”.

As a professional you cannot afford to use personal trust in a business environment unless a frequent employee theft investigation is your thing.

For more information on employee theft or an employee theft investigation contact us at corporate fraud investigation in Atlanta GA or call 1.770.426.0547