Internal theft and the value of corporate fraud investigation – Atlanta Georgia

Internal theft is the biggest factor when talking about inventory shrinkage. Employees around the globe cause the greatest loss to retailers. Yet, to this day, there are still managers and business owners that don’t believe their employees are stealing from them.

Recently, a window company, which has been in business for 31 years, had been operating in the red. For the last 10 years, they had been experiencing inventory shrinkage and loss. This is a small business run by a husband wife and two close friends. The friend, a bookkeeper, reported the poor sales weekly to the main owner. Worried about his business, he decided to bring in consultants to help with his losses. It was all or nothing. The consultants recommended to the owners the need for a thorough employee theft investigation and review the possibility of internal theft .

Insulted, the manager refused and stopped business with the consultants. Internal theft was not a problem at his company, and there was no need for an employee theft investigation as this was a small company and no one was stealing from him. He believes his losses were because of the downturn in the economy. Weeks passed and the poor performance continued. The managers got together talked about the possibilities of closing the business. As a result of the inventory shrinkage and poor sales performance, the team knew this could be it.

Later, the husband and wife team hired a corporate fraud investigator. The corporate fraud investigator spent a week going thru the inventory results, conducting forensic accounting, speaking with employees. The corporate fraud investigator found the answer, but knew the owners were not going to like it.

The corporate fraud investigator went to the home of the business owners, specifically, the husband and wife. He explained to them what he had done over the last week and his results. It wasn’t good and employee theft was definitely the cause. The bookkeeper of 20 years had been pocketing cash for 10 years, totaling over $1 million.

Do you really want to wait until employee theft gets to this level before you take action?

For more information about employee theft or internal theft or employee theft investigation contact us at corporate fraud investigation or call us at 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia