Regarding employee theft, there is a widely held rule of thumb among professional auditors, accountants, and most everyone else involved in the detection and/or apprehension of dishonest employees called the 10-10-80 rule: 10 percent of employees will steal no matter what measures employers take; 10 percent will never steal regardless of the circumstances; and 80 percent will steal if all the right conditions are met.

The employer’s goal then, is to reduce the likelihood that the 80 percent will steal by reducing the opportunity that an employee will be able to steal and get away with it.

This is accomplished through a number of sound personnel practices such as separation of duties so that one employee doesn’t have responsibility for all tasks in a given operation (such as receiving or accounting), adequate supervision and review of bank reconciliation and payroll and vendor checks, and conduct unannounced audits of all operations front to back.

But every business will eventually become victim to some form of employee theft and loss of assets such as cash, merchandise, supplies, or intellectual property.

When internal theft is suspected, the next step is an employee theft investigation conducted by a loss prevention or corporate fraud investigator.  A business owner has expertise in operating his business, but often trusts others to handle the back office and routine tasks.  Once a dishonest employee discovers that he has free reign to steal it can take months and years to discover the thefts.

A loss prevention or corporate fraud investigator can help determine the depth and scope of the employee theft.  Often, the perceived involvement of one employee is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg, as there are collaborators or witnesses that should also be developed.

The advantages of using an experienced fraud investigator in an employee theft investigation situation are many.  Among them are experienced in interviewing suspects and witnesses and developing evidence; familiarity with legal issues and employment law that affect employees; exposure to many types of internal theft; and working for the welfare of the business alone.

Reduce or eliminate employee theft through careful planning and a swift reaction to any suspicion of internal theft.

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

It’s true. Employee theft investigation can lead to better profits.

Working as a corporate fraud investigator for a specialty retailer with 20 stores, I had my first real observation of just how an employee theft investigation impacts profits. Recently the company had inventory in 10 stores. 8 of these stores did pretty good, some better than expected. However, for two stores, it was clear they had an internal theft problem. One store had shrink as high as 12%. Merchandise was disappearing before it even made it to the floor. My partner and I launched a corporate fraud investigation in each store. During the course of the investigation, we looked at all avenues of employee theft including, POS systems (Registers, checkstands), backroom areas including trash, conducted general interviews of all employees to get a feel of what was happening. As we dug, we uncovered a wealth of information and evidence to prove the high shrink numbers were a direct result of employee theft.

It is pretty well known throughout the retail industry that internal theft is more than 70% of the average retailer’s losses. In some cases, it’s much more. Controlling the effects of internal theft can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re looking for or at. In many cases it takes the help of an outside corporate fraud investigator to really get a good look.

As we continued our corporate fraud investigation, we narrowed our suspects down to 3 main culprits in the first store and 5 in the second. To us, it was clear internal theft caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss to this company. We did interviews of the employees and gained confessions from each. Many of the employees admitted to being involved because they were unhappy with the company, the store, the manager or fell on hard times in their personal life.

Employee theft investigation is a must when there are suspicions of employee theft. When I speak to my stores, I constantly share with the management the negative impacts of employee theft and inform the employees of the damages of internal theft.

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

How big is the problem of employee theft?

 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that over 30% of all corporate bankruptcies are caused by employee theft.  The U.S. Small Business Administration says that 60% of small business failures are attributed to internal theft.

 My estimate is that with many businesses struggling to survive in the current economy that the figures can only go higher.

 What can a business owner do to avoid becoming a statistic?

 The first thing to do is to try to prevent employee theft from becoming a problem in the first place.  When formulating policies and procedures, think like a corporate fraud investigator.  Identify any vulnerability in the systems and eliminate them through a system of chain of command, supervision, and delegation of duties.

 One of the most common scenarios in corporate fraud investigation concerning the theft of money occurs when one employee (usually the accountant or the bookkeeper, unfortunately) has the responsibility for receiving the money, depositing the money, and disbursing the money in cash or by check.  And there are so many ways to steal and get away with it for years:  payroll, vendor payments, petty cash disbursements, expense checks can all be falsified if there is no oversight.  If the same employee has access to the company credit card, look out.

 That’s just the cash end.  There is also merchandise or product to consider if you are a retailer or manufacturer, raw materials used in production, and samples are all company assets.  A corporate fraud investigator look at all the ways company assets like these can be removed from the premises, and devises methods to prevent employee theft from becoming a fact.  Business owners and managers should learn to think in this mindset.

 Then there is company property like office supplies, tools, vehicle supplies, computers, peripherals and software that is subject to internal theft and fraud.

 Finally there is time theft that can become a problem through falsified time records and employees working on personal projects while being paid by the company, which is fraud that can be corrected through a corporate fraud investigation.

 When considering ways to eliminate employee theft, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, only to adapt it to your own use, if you are a business owner or a concerned manager.  An experienced corporate fraud investigator can be a huge benefit in ways other than looking into isolated instances of internal theft after the fact and conducting an employee theft investigation.  There is no reason to wait until workplace theft becomes such an issue that it puts the business in jeopardy.  He or she can take an overview of your business and recommend steps to be taken to correct deficiencies and vulnerabilities in the operations of almost any category of business, small or large.

 If an employee theft investigation is warranted to a specific incident or just a suspicion, the corporate fraud investigator has the experience and knowledge to bring the situation to a successful conclusion and how to obtain restitution in full.

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

Loss Prevention Systems  experienced Employee theft investigator ‘s  are known for having conducted thousands of varying employee theft investigation ‘s for all types of companies. Large companies with experienced senior staff and the smallest of companies that are less than 5 employees, any company that suspected internal theft. One problem that we consistently see with all of them is that clients don’t call us untill it is late in the process. It is not an issue for us but it normally does cost the client more. Because we generally have to start over with much of the investigation.

 Most people including some of the most savvy business people I have ever met are like a fish out of water in these situations. Because of this they do not know how to build proper corporate fraud investigation s. And because they all watch CSI, they try to be their own employee theft investigator. It is not like what we see on TV, far from it.

 Our job is to build a thorough corporate fraud investigation, which will prevail with civil, and criminal courts and serve to effectively block unemployment claim if the client so desires. Most company executives are frustrated in these situations because they are missing a key business element that they must have to make their every day business decisions. That is control. They do not know what to do. We provide and therefore restore that sense of and actual control.

 Why not just call the police or FBI you ask? They have a staff of professional investigators. They have the skills. Of course they do. But as anyone in my field knows the chances of getting law enforcement to do this type of corporate fraud investigation is like playing the lottery. It isn’t that they do not want to or do not have the skill. The fact is that there are too many investigations assigned to them and they cannot actually work one to the extent necessary to get the investigation where it need to go. The average police detective in the U.S. is assigned 40 +/- investigations in a thirty-day period. They are civil servants and work a 40-hour workweek. How many of those 40 investigations do you really think get worked?

 On the other side we at LPSI assign a single corporate fraud investigator per investigation. That corporate fraud investigator will work on it from start to finish and that time frame is short depending on the case. Even complicated ones. Most of the delays we experience is the client trying to catch up with us.

 SO when should you call? Save yourself some money and call right away before you start firing people, calling the police and defiantly before the losses and investigation becomes water cooler gossip.

 For more information about corporate fraud investigator or internal theft , employee theft or employee theft investigation please contact us through corporate fraud investigation or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

An employee theft investigation is a situation most business owners and managers are uncomfortable with. This is understandable since this is a criminal and civil situation that the average businessperson rarely deals with. Because of this uncomfortable situation, there are trained employee theft investigator s . When an employee commits internal theft by stealing cash, merchandise, time or supplies they commit a clear crime. Most of the time the amount warrants felony criminal charges.

Internal theft in the “real world” happens in every business with employees. We would like to think that the person we hired would not steal from us. But the sad fact is that many do. Internal theft also known as employee theft many times is committed by some of the most “trusted” employees.  The problem is management’s definition of “trust”. Many managers and owners use personal trust in a business environment.

Personal trust is the trust you have in a friend or spouse. You may trust them with your life, house, car or dog. But you do not trust them with your business! In my experience most employee theft flourishes in this environment.

Business trust involves something called “trust but verify”. A good supervisor prevents employee theft and thus the need for an employee theft investigation by not simply assuming that work tasks are accomplished the way you want them. Following up on what and how an employee for instance is checking in stock keeps them on track and cuts down on mistakes and let’s the employee know you are involved. A simple audit of what the employee is doing or has done with feed back to them both positive and negative lets the employee know that any dishonest actions have a good chance of being discovered. Many times employee theft takes root when the employee feels that no one cares or knows what they do.

The same hold true for a corporate fraud investigation. Executives at all levels must be held accountable. Audits by CFO’s should be conducted at all levels. An outside auditing firm can also be used to conduct company reviews. You must tell them to include this type of review with their work.

But for the average small business a corporate fraud investigation will never be needed. Focus should be placed on control of all assets. This can be accomplished with a loss prevention audit or by simply being engaged at all levels.

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