{"id":16255,"date":"2002-09-07T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2002-09-07T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/?p=16255"},"modified":"2015-03-10T16:30:33","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T21:30:33","slug":"do-the-prosecution-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/do-the-prosecution-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the Prosecution Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"The Business Journal of Milwaukee
\n<\/em><\/strong>By Kathy Bergstrom<\/p>\n

Johnny Vassallo wants to send a message in his pursuit of a forgery case against his former employee. Rather than simply firing his bookkeeper and seeking restitution, Vassallo, owner of Mo\u2019s, A Place for Steaks, 720 N. Plankinton Ave., worked to make sure the Milwaukee restaurant\u2019s bookkeeper was charged criminally for forging checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to send out a message that it\u2019s not the right thing to do,\u201d Vassallo said of the theft. Vassallo also owns Mo\u2019s Market \u2013 A Place for Wine, a wine market\/bar at 717 N. Plankinton Ave., Milwaukee, and Ten Eleven, a restaurant in the Park East Hotel, Milwaukee.<\/span><\/p>\n

The employee, Lisa Hillsley, 33, of West Allis was charged Aug. 8 with three counts of forgery. Hillsley forged checks and took bank deposits that she estimated to total between$12,000 and $20,000 according to the criminal complaint in the case.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"Hillsley\u2019s bail was set at $15,000. She has been unable to post it and remains in jail. A jury trial has been set for Oct. 7. Hillsley\u2019s lawyer, James Hanley, could not be reached for comment. Hillsley is from Australia, and Vassallo said he hired her in January after doing some minor background checks. \u201cWe thought she was a good employee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The restaurant has made some changes in its processes to prevent similar fraud from occurring again and is now doing a painstaking audit of its books to determine how much theft actually occurred.<\/p>\n

While many small business owners might accept embezzlement as \u201ca cost of business,\u201d Vassallo said it was important to get the police involved. If he didn\u2019t pursue charges, \u201cshe could just go next month and start doing this to somebody else.\u201d Vassallo expects to be reimbursed for the loss through insurance.<\/p>\n

Vassallo said the company\u2019s system of checks and balances was weak, and changes have been made. Local accountants who specialize in internal audits and forensic accounting say Vassallo is probably in the majority of small business owners who are pursing charges against employees who steal.<\/p>\n

Once fraud has been discovered, companies have to do their own internal investigation in addition to contacting law enforcement officials, said Tom Martinez, director of internal audits for Jefferson Wells International\u2019s Milwaukee office. A certified fraud investigator can ensure that methods of investigation don\u2019t jeopardize a criminal case.<\/p>\n

Hiring a forensic accounting service is probably most cost-effective for a company that suspects its loss is $25,000 or greater, said Tracy Coenen<\/strong>, owner of Sequence Inc., a forensic accounting firm in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

Small businesses sometimes are vulnerable to fraud because they have trouble segregating duties, accountants said. Small businesses have fewer employees among whom to spread bookkeeping duties, said Martinez.<\/p>\n

Another vulnerability is that small businesses can have poor internal controls, Coenen said. Internal controls ensure that one person doesn\u2019t have too much responsibility over one area, she said.<\/p>\n

Martinez and Coenen said creating an environment that lets employees know the company is keeping tabs on fraud is one of the most important ways to prevent it. That involves creating and communicating ethics policies and creating a system that allows employees to anonymously report theft. Forcing employees to take vacations of a week or more at a time can also help ensure fraud isn\u2019t occurring, Coenen said.<\/p>\n

One technique that many small companies use is a checking service with their bank in which the company sends a list of all payees to its bank, Martinez said. Payees must be on that list in order for the bank to cash the check, he said. Some companies are requiring the employee who handles accounts payable to use a specialized blank check stock and secure laser printers to print all approved checks, Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Another simple way to check for fraud is having bank statements sent to the business owner\u2019s home, so he or she can look at the statement, Coenen said. Bank deposits should be verified daily by an employee who isn\u2019t depositing the checks, Martinez said. Companies that review their cash position daily will scare people away from trying to commit fraud, he added. Businesses also are likely to catch it more quickly and limit damage, he said.<\/p>\n

Some of the changes Mo\u2019s has made include requiring anyone who makes a cash deposit to bring back the bank deposit slip and place it in the deposit book. That was always the system, but it was not being followed, Vassallo said. The company is now issuing a limited amount of checks and has hired a new bookkeeper.<\/p>\n

No checks will go to anyone who is not on a payable list, and they must have a signature stamp that is locked in a safe accessible only by the company\u2019s chief financial officer. The company is also running credit checks on key employees and will make sure the bookkeeper is bonded.<\/p>\n

Hillsley stole more than money from the company, Vassallo said. \u201cIt definitely had an effect on the trust levels between staff,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just look at everybody differently.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Business Journal of Milwaukee By Kathy Bergstrom Johnny Vassallo wants to send a message in his pursuit of a forgery case against his former employee. Rather than simply firing his bookkeeper and seeking restitution, Vassallo, owner of Mo\u2019s, A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[810,2777,2778],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-financial-investigations","category-forensic-accountant","category-media-profiles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Z0e-4eb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}