Employee Theft is More Common Than You Think. This is What You Should Do About It.
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Are you a fan of chicken wings? So much so that you’d be willing to drop $1.5 million on the stuff?
According to a?CBS News report, Vera Liddell — a former director of food services at a school district in suburban Chicago — was. She purchased, yes, $1.5 million worth of wings from July 2020 until February 2022 — placing hundreds of unauthorized orders, which were then paid for by the district and then received by her. Authorities are still investigating the scheme, but it’s obvious that Liddell — assuming she’s guilty — likely sold the wings for a profit.
How did the scheme get uncovered? A $300,000 budget overage caught the eye of accountants. Oh, and someone noticed that the school district doesn’t even serve chicken wings.
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The theft of so many chicken wings may be a little unusual. But?fraud?at a business certainly isn’t. Almost every day, you can read reports about how employees are stealing from their employers.
There’s the legal secretary in New Jersey that?allegedly wrote?more than $184,000 in checks from her firm’s account for her friends and family. Or the procurement manager at a New York business that has been?accused by?the FBI of creating fraudulent invoices that directed payment into his personal account. Or the human resources manager at a small manufacturer in Pennsylvania?who gave herself?raises and also spent thousands of dollars of her employer’s money using the firm’s credit card. There’s the financial manager of a Minnesota-based property management company?who embezzled?more than $1 million from company funds. And the director of accounting services?who stole?more than $2 million from her employer and used it for trips and other personal expenses.
(Read the full column in?Entrepreneur)