As a business owner, you have devoted years to building your business, including hiring, training, and retaining high-performing employees, building up a network of reliable suppliers, and cultivating relationships with customers. Regrettably, though, there can be employees, suppliers, or customers who take advantage of your trust and commit fraud against your business. If this has happened to you, rest assured that you are far from alone: fraud costs businesses $3.6 billion globally, which amounts to an average of 5% of organizational revenue each year.
One of the ways that employees commit business fraud is through asset misappropriation, which is responsible for 86% of business fraud. There are numerous schemes that someone could use to misappropriate assets. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, some of the more common ones include:
- Noncash fraud: When employees steal noncash supplies from work, such as inventory items, office supplies, or electronics.
- Check or payment tampering: When an employee writes checks to themselves from the company’s bank account or diverts electronic payments for suppliers to themselves.
- Larceny: When an employee receives a payment from a vendor for a sale. The employee notes the sale but steals the payment before the organization deposits it in its bank account.
- Skimming: Similar to larceny, an employee receives payment for a sale but does not record the sale or the payment with the organization and keeps the money instead.
- Petty cash fraud: When an employee steals money from the organization’s petty cash fund.
- Expense reimbursement fraud: When an employee inflates or creates bogus expenses on their expense report and the organization unknowingly reimburses them.
The best way to minimize the risk of business fraud is to remain involved and vigilant in your company’s financial operations. You may also want to have a third-party organization conduct financial audits of your business to check for fraud as well.
If you suspect an employee is defrauding your company, you need to act fast to minimize the financial impact to your company. Do not confront the employee right away – if you are wrong about your suspicions or act contrary to employment law, then your company could be at risk for a lawsuit from the employee. The first step is to contact an attorney who practices business fraud law, such as Rader Law Group. The attorney will inform you of the type of evidence you need to collect and how you can legally collect it. Based on the extent of the fraud, you will need to decide if you will press charges in addition to firing the employee. Rader Law is experienced in handling business fraud cases and will guide you each step of the way to swiftly and legally remove the fraudster from your company. Contact us today for a free initial consultation.
Rader Law Group, LLC
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