This happened to my uncle. He owns a store, and he trusted the bookkeeper. She ended up running off with his money AND his client list, she left him with nothing. I also saw this at my first job when I was 14 years old, one of the managers was fired for stealing a few hundred dollars a month over a long period of time. They just do it in small amounts so as to not be suspicious, make it look like a loss, especially nowadays with the economy - companies are expecting a loss. Be all nicey nice, kiss a few rear ends, appear to be the most trustworthy person ever and nobody will even check up on you. If American Express hadn't caught it, I wonder how long it would've been til the owner even knew about it.

Granted, stealing $25,000 a week... that doesn't quite seem small to me. How she managed to get away with that is beyond me. Though, I don't know what kind of profits they were pulling in on a weekly basis, maybe $25,000 a week was only a tiny chunk of their profits.
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That is why they teach in first year accounting that you need to have substantive internal controls. She was the bookkeeper, auditor, check writer and CFO. No one person should EVER be any two of these positions at a company that does anything approaching substantial revenue. This is a microcosm of the greater thefts that take place in larger companies. It's called cooking the books. All she'd have to do to get away with this, since she was in charge of all the financials, is spread out the payments she was making to herself over several legitimate expenses in such a way that it does not appear to be out of order. Then again, if she's the auditor which she apparently, she didn't even have to do that! I can't believe the owners/shareholders never did an outside audit or hire a consultant once they had to start laying people off. That's bad management.
Source(s):
graduate accounting student

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The answer, without trying to be sarcastic, is simple. The article itself explains, "...the company never hired an outside auditor to check the books because she had a trusted position." There's a Latin phrase, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Translated roughly, if I remember correctly, is who will guard the guards. Unfortunately, especially these days, when integrity and genuine honesty seem to be only words. I'm afraid when it comes to money, somebody must always be watching the somebody who keeps track of it.
Source(s):
believe it or not...I have to credit my H.S. english teacher...Mr. Esser, for tunning me onto some cool latin phrases that always stuck with me. (I only remember 2 others, but at least I remember something from 20+ years ago.

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