CPA: Small businesses at strong risk of fraud, theft
HENDERSON COUNTY, Ky. —
It’s a common belief — or perhaps just a hope — among small-business owners: Employee theft can’t happen here. My employees wouldn’t steal from me. And besides, we have controls in place to prevent it.
Except that fraud and theft is occurring here, according to Henderson CPA Malcom E. “Mac” Neel III, a partner in Myriad CPA Group who said 60 percent of his time is spent on forensic accounting.
In just the past six months, he said, his firm has been involved in investigating the theft of $399,000 from six area companies.
Malcolm E. “Mac” Neel III of Henderson, partner of Myriad CPA Group. (Photo furnished, Sept. 4, 2012)
“That’s a whole lot of money from just six businesses,” Neel told a Henderson Chamber of Commerce Brown Bag luncheon recently.
A comptroller at one firm wrote $185,000 in personal checks over three years. A bookkeeper secretly put her husband on the payroll, paying him $100,000 over more than four years. An office manager stole $38,000 in cash, while a church secretary embezzled $3,000.
“You hire people you think you can trust, but you have to verify what they’re doing,” Neel said.
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