Embezzlement is an every present threat to Michigan businesses, both large and small. Embezzlement includes computer fraud, employee theft, credit card fraud, transferring of money or account conversion, faulty checks, forgery and more. In Michigan and elsewhere, businesses rely on trusted employees to oversee operations and protect the company and it’s assets. Unfortunately, those trusted employees are often the ones who do the most damage when abuse their position to ingratiate themselves and defraud the company.
Often the next and most obvious question is; why do valued employees commit embezzlement and fraud? Research on fraud has identified three key factors that determine whether a person will commit fraud. The three factors, which are commonly referred to and the “fraud triangle,” are: 1- perceived pressure facing the person, 2- perceived opportunity to commit fraud, and 3- the person’s rationalization, or integrity. Now immediately what comes to mind is a shady middle aged guy who has managed to sneak into some poorly managed business to defraud it, and planned to do it all along. Wrong guy. Although he may exist, far more often, it is a truly trusted employee who encountered the pressure, opportunity and ultimately rationalization that lead them to “borrow” money temporarily out of “necessity”.
So now you say, no if one of our key people was having a problem, they would tell me. They don’t have the type of pressure that could lead to this. Wrong again. One of the main reasons this happens is the tremendous pressure they feel to conceal the underlying problem and to fix it in private. The idea of others knowing that they are in financial straights is extremely threatening to them and they will do almost anything to avoid that detection.
ASG is a leader in the investigative industry and helping to uncover fraud and embezzlement in Michigan is just one of the ways that we help businesses to uncover problems and in preventing employee theft.
