Examples of Employee Fraud – Atlanta

A report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners published in 2008 stated that $994 billion were lost to employee fraud . Anything from filing a claim for false injury, embezzling funds to falsifying experience on an employment application are examples of this kind of fraud. An employee for Quest Diagnostics stole $1.2 million by filing false expense reports. He set up dummy companies and filed fake invoices for payments he had allegedly made on behalf of his employer. Of course most cases aren’t so extensive. All businesses, large or small, can be susceptible.

In 2007 I came across an appliance salesman for a major retailer. This individual would sell an appliance to a legitimate customer and record the sales transaction. Several weeks later he would ring in a return for the appliance and return the money to the customer. The only problem was there was no customer. The return portion of the transaction was completely false and he would simply pocket the money he should have returned to the customer. When we finally caught him (only because the computers showed that we had a great deal of merchandise on hand that wasn’t actually in the store) he had racked up over $70K in fraudulent returns. A sizable jail sentence followed for the individual, but the company never saw a dime of that money back.

This is the type of employee fraud that most small businesses deal with. People use their particular occupation to misappropriate assets and steal or fraudulently disburse funds. As an employer you want to be able to trust your employees, but as a smart employer you need to be aware of, and look for, red flags. Individuals living beyond their means or experiencing financial difficulties; these are the people most likely to commit employee fraud .

For more information contact us about employee fraud or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta