Employee Theft Causes Long Timer to Lose Dream Job

According to the New York Times, the long time clubhouse manager of a major league baseball team was charged with employee theft for stealing items from the team valued at over $2 million, an employee theft investigation revealed.

Sports fans and speculators are willing to pay big money for sports memorabilia, particularly items that are autographed by famous players.

The local District Attorney, who was looking into an organized gambling ring, initiated the corporate fraud investigation that led to this case of internal theft. Soon this turned to the vast collection of sports items and team equipment that was being held in the basement of a house owned by a friend of the suspect.  The basement held several team sets of autographed uniforms bats and balls.

In addition to the employee theft of all the merchandise, the ex-clubhouse manager was charged with embezzling approximately $25,000 from inflated expense claims for providing meals to umpires, and failure to pay taxes on $200,000 received as tips over two years.

According to the article, the suspect was also in charge of the equipment and was the traveling secretary, booking all flights and hotels for the team.  Two or more people, for oversight purposes, normally hold these three jobs, but this individual had free rein, and an open invitation to commit internal theft.

He overbought equipment and handled the road account for the team.  One investigator remarked that he led the team in steals.

This baseball team was fortunate that the District Attorney’s look into gambling activity led to this employee theft investigation.

The lesson from this story for every business owner, is to set policies and procedures in place that will reduce or eliminate internal theft.  There has to be oversight and supervision over every employee, no matter how long they have been employed and no matter what the position.  If not, employee theft is the result. A corporate fraud investigation is not pretty, but with the appropriate security procedures in place you can avoid it.

For more information on employee theft , corporate fraud investigation , an employee theft investigation , or internal theft questions, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia