They Will Steal From You
Wed, January 25, 2012 | Post a Comment | 
THE POINT: You need to watch your money like a hawk, trust no one!
Yes, they will!
If you put people in charge of your money without checks and balances to make sure nothing, no foul play can occur, sooner or later they will steal from you. I learned this the hard way.
For 16 years, my wife's personal assistant, let’s call her “Brenda,” came to work in our office. Since I needed help and she had done such an extraordinary job for my wife at our home, we decided this would be a great move.
For 16 years, Brenda worked with me.
She became invaluable. Everyone else noticed what a great job she did.
Every day I would hear three different comments. 1. I really am impressed with Brenda 2. I wish I had a Brenda. 3. What would you do without Brenda? So I trusted her.
Eventually there came a day where we got a call from IRS.
They wanted to do an audit. The next thing that happened was that my full time in house CPA, who was so well respected she was president of the local CPA Association, disappeared overnight. She said she got a phone call from her father and she was going home to Yazoo City, Mississippi to take over his practice. Hard to believe it was not related to the impending IRS audit. During the interim, while we were looking for the replacement CPA, Barbara began overseeing the finances.
She wound up being in total control of the money, deposits, checks etc.
I wasn't concerned except I was afraid she was overworked. I pressured her to quickly get help. I encouraged her to step up the interview process and quickly get a replacement CPA since she didn't seem to be in any real hurry to get that job done. When I would bring up the fact that she was working so hard, she just smiled and said no it's fine, it's not a problem.
Eventually I found out why.
It came time to pay our taxes, and I noticed that our entire tax account which should have contained $345,000.00 was empty. A junior bookkeeper we'd hired also asked to talk with me privately. It turned out he discovered some discrepancy in the books and was able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Brenda had taken off with tons of money, had embezzled tons of other money.
Best estimates were placed at something just below a million dollars.
And I won't get into the end of that story except that the tax accountant did tell me that it's never the greasy haired guy at the bank that embezzles, it's always the sweet grandmother who bakes cookies for everyone who later is found out to have embezzled $400,000.00 or more from the bank. It's always the ones you don't suspect that get away with it.
Although painful, I realize it was all my fault.
I had let it happen and it dawned on me that if you tempt someone long enough, eventually they'll give in. Here’s an example I thought of at the time. Suppose I have a nice big gallon container of ice cream. I rip the lid off and I'm about to dig in. I grab a spoon, then suddenly something happens where I've got to take a call or take care of an emergency. I hand the spoon and the ice cream to someone to hold for me until I get back. Here’s the truth. It's just a matter of time before they take a bite. Humans can only resist temptation for a limited period of time, then even the best of people will cave. Maybe not everybody, but you've got to assume the ones around you will. And it will be your fault because you created the temptation.
So how do you avoid it?
Don't give them an opportunity. Stay in control. Keep your eyes on the money. Have checks and balances. Do whatever it takes to take the potential for theft out of the equation.
Especially when it comes to money, if you give people a chance to take some for themselves, they'll do it every time.
Feedback: Are you one of the ones who think it could never happen to you? As long as you think that way it makes you a likely target. Do you see why? Or am I wrong?