A true story round up for June 15, 2010:

#1 comes to us from Wilmington, Delaware where the bookkeeper for a small business has been arrested for allegedly embezzling more than $83,000 from her employer.  She used vendor payments to mask the embezzlement, but it eventually caught up with her.

#2 involves a repeat offender who pleaded guilty to $400,000 embezzlement in 2005, and is now facing a charge for writing $20,000 in bogus paychecks to her boyfriend.  She told her co-workers that the company was sponsoring him as a professional bowler… clever!

#3 is a law firm theft.  Anecdotally, I’ve noticed a lot of law firm cases which seems really reckless to me.  Stealing from anyone can cause problems for you, but from a lawyer?

#4 is another high dollar theft.  A bookkeeper for a small business in New Jersey stole $400,000 by writing checks to herself in her maiden name and failing to pay the company’s taxes.  What’s unique about this case is that the criminal turned herself in before the investigation was completed.  Still, the owner had to tap their retirement funds to cover the losses, keep the business running and keep the Internal Revenue Service at bay.

The 5^th story in our round-up shows that crime doesn’t pay whatever the reason may be.  A bookkeeper accused of stealing nearly $70,000 tried to justify the crime as a result of her “desire to provide for her family” and because her “judgment was clouded at the time by a combination of medications”.  They convicted her!

If you have stories to share, send them to truestories@auditmybooks.com.  If we publish them, we’ll give you full credit and a link back to your site.

-CP Morey