I have said to all my true crime buff friends that if you are really interested in the really complex criminal cases, then turn to the business page. On any given day there are reports of everything from Ponzi Schemes to embezzlement and fraud. Now with the economy as bad as it is, there will be more, I’m sure.
The EX-Treasurer of NBC Universal Inc.’s was sentenced to a year and a dayfor stealing more than $1 million from the company. Once you are sentenced to a year and a day it constitutes a felony conviction, hence the length of the sentence. Victor Jung, the convicted embezzler, had a reduced sentence because he agreed to provide authorities with incriminating evidence againts his subordinate, James Walsh. Walsh was sentenced in early December.
Jung was convicted of making unauthorized transfers frm NBC Parent, General Electric accounts to his personal accounts. He did this for two years before his indiscretions were discovered. That’s a long time and a lot of money.
As a background searching firm we always recommend special searches among the background checks you conduct as part of your preemployment screening program. Aside from the usual criminal and education searches, we recommend the federal criminal background checks and federal civil background searches. This is where you find the white collar crimes. While there is always a first time for your employers, and searching these records is no absolute guarantee that you will prevent serious inside theft, these searches go a long way in weeding out the guilty.
The thing is for the few dollars worth of prevention, you are possibly avoiding that inevitable pound of cure. In this case it was a million bucks. In other cases it is multi-millions or even billions.
So check them out before you hire.
