In the news this week were bookkeepers in New York and Oregon faced with embezzlement charges and convictions.
In New York state, a bookkeeper took cash from daily bank deposits for years, from the tractor dealership she worked for. She was found guilty in Orange county court, and faces prison time, as well as agreeing to pay back nearly a quarter of a million dollars in stolen funds.
This was another case of a bookkeeper stealing from a company that sells industrial heavy equipment. There is something about the big numbers in buying and selling expensive machines that make people think the bottom line might be missed.
In Oregon, a woman is charged with stealing a million and a half dollars from a printing company that eventually went bankrupt because of the financial difficulties she caused. She worked there for 16 years, and was never suspected until all other possibilities were explored, at which point it was too late to save the company. No heavy equipment here, but interestingly it was a publisher of catalogs for heavy equipment companies.
An interesting quote from the owner states “she was very good at deflecting it and keeping information from me”. That’s something you hear a lot in embezzlement cases. Those who are savvy enough to get away with it, at least for a while, seem to be adept at avoiding suspicion or setting up situations where other plausible causes could be resulting in questionable finances.
Of course, it stands to reason that if you embezzle money over a significant amount of time, you are either good at avoiding questions, or no one is paying very close attention.
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