Accountant Steals $200,000 From Her Own Church
Religion – Over about three years, Traci Anderson embezzled around $200,000 from a Manhattan Beach church that was her place of worship and employer.
Entire article at the Manhattan Beach News.
There is an old adage about someone being desperate enough to steal from the church’s poor box. I guess this situation is where someone add as ring of truth to that situation by embezzling $200,000 from the church’s books. Some accountant. But she wouldn’t be the first accountant to make off with the money. No, in fact more than a few companies have thieving accountants littered in their wake like damaged tanks in a war gone wrong.
Thieving employees not only cost you money, but they damage your reputation. You don’t have to be all that imaginative to understand what this looks like to fellow parishioners and community members when a story like this hits the news. Your business clients would have pause, and your honest employees often suffer from a drop in morale. And you as the business owner or key executive feel violated and discouraged. To say nothing about being out of the stolen money.
Because stolen money is usually gone. Employees aren’t stealing it usually because they wish to invest in mutual funds. They are often desperate and have either substance or gambling habits or have in other ways fallen so far behind that they are motivated to steal. So recovering the money is often a tough task at best and impossible at worst.
So you should be running background checks on your employment candidates. You should be running criminal background checks as well as credit reports, which will help determine the kind of fiscal discipline they have personally and what kind of trouble they may have already encountered. These searches are part of preemployment screening package or can be ordered through our a la carte background checking service.
Either way, find out who you are bringing into your workplace. Check them out before you hire. Call Corra
