To Stay Secure, Think Like a Fraudster

Take the case of one private secondary school, where the business officer was accused of cutting checks worth more than $50,000 to pay for personal travel expenditures. He entered the transactions into the school record as payments for school travel. Because the hotels and airlines were the same companies the school used for professional development, fundraising visits and its annual gala, the misappropriation was difficult to detect. No one thought to suspect the employee. The culprit made other personal purchases to upgrade his lifestyle and even bought gifts for another school employee. Eventually pleading guilty, the business officer repaid the nearly $100,000 he had embezzled, while the business office made changes to its segregation of duties to prevent something similar from happening again.