Embezzlement is a term that comes up more and more in the news each day. It is a verb, defined in the dictionary as, "to appropriate fraudulently to one's own use, as money or property entrusted to one's care". For some reason, people think that they can get close to others with money and then steal it from them without getting caught. Simply put, this means that people who work for someone or a company, steal either money or property from that entity.
Some recent cases of embezzlement include Mark Roy Anderson from California embezzling money in July 2011 from investors planning to invest money in the oil industries. Instead of using their money for the investments, Anderson used the money for his own personal expenses. In total, he embezzled up to $9.5 million from these investors.
Karen Peterson embezzled money from her deceased father-in-law. Her father-in-law passed away in 1989 and she had told the government that he was still living. Since he was a government employee when he was alive, he was receiving Civil Service Retirement benefits from the government. Peterson had falsely reported to the government that he was still alive, so from 1989 up until September 2010 when she was finally caught, Peterson had embezzled close to $600,000 in government money. She was also found guilty of owing $13,000 in unpaid income taxes.
There are generally at least one of three things that are in place before a person decides to embezzle. They are need, opportunity and rationalization. The people who embezzle from you are generally people you trust. They may be employees that are not making as much money in your company as they would like but are able to access information freely. They think they know you well enough to believe you are not paying attention and see an opportunity to steal funds without you noticing. They think there is a low probability you will ever appraise the situation and therefore don’t think they will get caught.
As online college courses are on the rise, so are other means of online education, including online theft classes. In the hopes of breaking the cycle, court judges nationwide often approve them instead of sentencing someone to jail. However, for those described above who have been involved in serious white collar embezzlement cases, jail-time is the course of action. At the very least, the thief will have probation, fines, bad publicity and lawyer fees to deal with.
If you are lucky enough to realize you have an issue and would like immediate help and support to stop and redirect this behavior, online classes are the path to take. There is a licensed practicing therapist available by phone Monday – Friday who can enhance the online program with personal discussion. Learn to stop this behavior before you are in too deep!
