Many businesses end up being the victims of employee fraud and misconduct, and with such a high number of companies located here in NYC/Long Island, it's only natural that many companies here will experience this problem as well.
Surprisingly, many businesses don't even realize that they're being taken advantage of until long after the money has been taken. Consider a couple of Long Island and New York examples if you're not convinced:
Your company needs every advantage that it can get in order to thrive in today's business climate. It's important to pay attention to everything from marketing to sales strategies and beyond, but many companies have now realized just how important the hiring process can be as well. Hiring the right employees is a must, and hiring errors can cost a company thousands of dollars – sometimes more.
There are numerous benefits offered by running employment background checks, including:
Businesses don't operate in a vacuum. They rely on teamwork and allies – not only from employees, but from partners, suppliers, vendors, accountants, and more. In short – you'll likely end up doing business with a lot of different people in order to keep your company moving forward.
From time to time, you might find that the use of a private investigator is needed. A private eye isn't really what the movies make it seem like, and as such it's worth taking a look at what they can do for a business. You might be surprised at the positive impact they can have on your bottom line.
With that in mind, here are the top ways that a private investigator can help your company.
Any company will face challenges, and the key to success is obvious – keep your bottom line in the black. Bringing income into the business is important, but so is reducing the overall costs that your company incurs regularly.
There are a lot of different things to consider in terms of reducing costs, and it's common for some areas to be overlooked completely. Insurance fraud and worker's compensation investigations, in particular, need to be addressed, and while it may not seem like your company needs them, the opposite could be true.
Radius Investigations is proud to announce that one of it's founding partners, Sinai Megibow, will be taking part in Long Island's Fight for Charity.
Sinai is joining 25 other Long Island businessmen and businesswomen who will be putting on the boxing gloves this November to go 'mano a mano' in the ring.
As reported by Jenna Marci on June 24, 2015 at libn.com...
Twenty-six Long Island businessmen and businesswomen will go head-to-head in a boxing extravaganza this November in the name of charity.
Long Island’s Fight for Charity, co-founded by Jamie Austin, Jeff Cohen and Matt Silver, gathers volunteers from Long Island’s business community each year to train for five months before sending them off into the ring. This year’s kick-off event, held Tuesday, was sponsored by Lessing’s and hosted at Stonebridge Golf Links & Country Club in Smithtown.
Now in its 12th year, the event has been known to draw over 1,000 viewers; this year’s fight expects more than 1,200 attendees. Fight for Charity has raised almost $1 million since 2003 and, this year, hopes to raise another $150,000. Funds raised by the event are donated to local charities such as the Long Island Community Chest, The Genesis School and the National Foundation for Human Potential.
Last year the event was available on pay-per-view for $29.95. Tickets to the live event sold for $150 for general admission and $225 for V.I.P.
The fight night is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 23, 2015. This is a great cause that helps a lot of people in our Long Island community. We invite you to participate.
Bribery continues to be a major legal and ethical problem for U.S. businesses operating in overseas markets. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which criminalizes bribery of foreign officials in order to access foreign markets, can have very severe penalties for U.S. firms whose employees or overseas agents are caught committing (or attempting to commit) bribery.
An article found at news.yahoo.com by Reuters reports on a recent case that highlights this problem...
Florida-based defense company IAP Worldwide Services Inc will pay $7.1 million to settle a U.S. investigation into an alleged conspiracy to bribe Kuwaiti officials to win a government contract, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.
A former vice president of IAP, James Michael Rama, 69, of Lynchburg, Virginia, also pleaded guilty earlier on Tuesday in a Virginia federal court to participating in the illegal scheme, prosecutors said in a statement.
A lawyer for Rama was not immediately identifiable.
According to prosecutors, in February 2006 senior executives at IAP, including Rama, set up a shell company called Ramaco to compete in the first phase of a bid to provide surveillance capabilities, including closed-circuit television, to Kuwait's Ministry of the Interior.
Read the entire article here...
There are many ways that firms operating in the global marketplace can protect themselves from exposure to this kind of liability or minimize their liability if one of their agents violates the law. A comprehensive due diligence investigation of any new overseas vendors or agents can significantly reduce the risk by eliminating those vendors with checkered histories or serious conflicts of interests. Secondly, once concerns are raised that a company’s representatives may have bribed, or attempted to bribe, foreign officials, the best way for the company to minimize its liability exposure is to conduct a swift, thorough, and impartial internal investigation. Utilizing a reputable outside agency to conduct the investigation is an effective method for insuring impartiality and earning credibility with law enforcement.
For more information on how Radius Investigations can assist you in conducting international due diligence, and/or internal investigations, contact us or call 888-698-0077.
Here's a recent report found at patch.com written by Priscila Korb about an employee of the Shinnecock Animal Hospital who was arrested for stealing more than $50,000 from the hospital and its customers.
Keri A. Guillo, 28, who worked as an administrative assistant at the hospital, stole money from the hospital and its clients by using their credit card information, police said.
She stole varying amounts of money totaling over $50,000 in 2011 and 2012, police said.
Read the entire article here...
These types of fraud are very common, and businesses and organizations of every size can be victims. As we’ve been discussing on our blog, however, there are many ways that we can help to reduce the risk of these kinds of frauds, or to minimize the damage and catch the thieves before too much damage is done. These preventive methods include comprehensive pre-employment background checks, strong internal accounting controls and procedures, robust data security practices, and a swift and thorough investigation when a “red flag” of fraud or misconduct is observed.
This blog post is part of our continuing series of articles on how business owners and managers can protect themselves from a multitude of risks in the workplace by employing investigative and due diligence strategies.
Companies today have many different obstacles and challenges that they have to overcome. While their focus must be on servicing their customers, matching the competition, marketing effectively, and dealing with their day-to-day operations, it's also a must that businesses identify where they may be vulnerable to criminal activity, liability, or other threats to their viability.
The first step is simply to understand what kind of internal threats a business might face. Common threats include the following.
1) Employee Theft
Every year, millions of dollars are lost to employee dishonesty. A fairly recent example occurred in 2013 here in Long Island when a bookkeeper for an oil company plead guilty to stealing nearly $500,000 from her employer. Employee theft might take the form of through embezzlement, fraudulent billing schemes, theft of inventory or trade secrets, or even something as seemingly benign as stealing company supplies. Regardless of the methods used, employee theft is a very real problem, and one which can destroy the reputation and even continued existence of a company.
2) Corruption
Corruption in a business setting can take many forms. It includes:
- conflicts of interest (steering company contracts to vendors associated with the employee);
- bribery (paying money to government officials in order to get them to perform some kind of official act, such as access certain markets or avoid regulatory issues);
- extortion (obtaining property through threats or actual force and/or fear);
- kickbacks (receiving payments for steering company contracts to certain vendors);
- illegal gratuities (paying money to a government official after the official has provided some service to the company).
3) Compliance
From sexual harassment to failure to disclose certain information, employees who cause the business to slip into areas of noncompliance are setting it up for major legal repercussions that can be difficult or impossible to recover from.
Those are just some examples of the most common criminal or fraud-related threats that affect businesses internally. So just what can you do to help prevent these issues from occurring? There are a few steps worth remembering.
- Know the warning signs. Learn how to identify a potential problem. It could include excessive contact with one certain vendor, sloppy record-keeping, or an employee who seems to be living a lavish lifestyle that their salary can't support.
- Run regular audits that give you a look at employee spending and other areas of the business. This can help you identify potential areas that might be at risk.
- Use data monitoring tools and software that track the on-line or on-network activities of employees at work, in order to get a clear picture of who is doing what.
- Review vendor relationships periodically. Look at contracts and orders to ensure that an employee isn't using one single vendor excessively.
- Use background checks to ensure that you hire the right employees for any position and that you verify their history and credentials.
- Investigate if you observe red flags of misconduct. Professional investigators and fraud examiners are trained to spot fraud and related problems, and can provide a thorough, objective investigation of the situation as well as helping to solve the problem.
Keeping these points in mind – and keeping alert for any possible red flags of misconduct – can help insure the financial and physical safety of your business, as well as deter any possible future issues.
Most business leaders, understandably, focus their effort and attention on the day to day operations of managing their business and providing for their clients or customers. As a result, they are often unaware of, or not prepared to deal with, the significant risks they face from potential employee misconduct or criminal acts. In order to protect themselves, their businesses, and their customers, it is vitally important for any business owner to understand the various risks that employees could bring to the workplace and how to mitigate them.
Consider just some of the ways that employee activity could negatively impact your business:
- Workplace violence
- Embezzlement/theft in the workplace
- Fraud
- Negligent hiring liability
- Sexual misconduct
- Theft of trade secrets, proprietary information, or client confidential information
- Harm to reputation
In other words, your employees can have much more of an impact on your business' bottom line and on the safety of your workers than you realize. In order to get this issue under control, there are several steps you should consider taking. These include the following.
- Start by educating yourself. Spend time learning about the possible risks your business may face, how it impacts your business, and what warning signs might exist that show the issue is present in your business. The same risk factors do not apply to every business!
- Inform others in the workplace. Often, criminal issues are identified by coworkers and reported to management. The fact is that employee criminal activity can lead to a negative workplace environment for everyone, and many team members will be on the lookout for these issues, too.
- Turn to the experts. By retaining professional investigators, particularly those with experience conducting background and due diligence investigations, you can greatly reduce the risks associated with any potential or current employee. You can use private investigators to help with employee screening during the hiring process as well as to run internal investigations into any potential issues within your business.
- Use the right tools. There are numerous tools that can help mitigate the risk of potentially harmful employee activity. These range from automated payroll and financial systems to security cameras to internal computer network monitoring systems. By using the tools available you'll give yourself and your employees a safer work environment.
The key here is to be vigilant. By knowing what to look for and understanding what steps to take to correct any issues, you'll be able to start working towards a safer and more productive workplace.
Not all employees are honest, trustworthy people. Case in point: A recent report published at usatoday.com by Kevin McCoy about an Ex-JPMorgan adviser who has been charged with fraud for allegedly stealing $20 million from customers.
Michael Oppenheim, 48, took money from at least seven bank clients in a fraud scheme he operated from March 2011 to March 2015, federal prosecutors alleged.
He was arrested Thursday at his Livingston, N.J., home and brought to Manhattan federal court for an initial hearing, authorities said.
Oppenheim worked as a JPMorgan investment adviser from February 2002 through last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint. He advised approximately 500 clients who collectively kept roughly $89 million in assets under his management, according to a criminal complaint filed by Manhattan federal prosecutors.
Read the entire article here...
At Radius Investigations we always stress how important it is for businesses to conduct a thorough background check on all prospective employees. As a business owner you want to limit the likelihood that one of your employees will commit a crime against the business, other employees, your customers, etc. Proper employee background screening may also have the effect of limiting your liability against a claim of negligent hiring should one of your employees turn out to be a crook.
For more information about our employment background screening services, call us today 1-888-698-0077