REGION Crimes of opportunity, betrayal
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/region-crimes-of-opportunity-betrayal/article_f05965d5-7af4-524d-884c-d89fd03c023a.htmlDr. Julie Aspiras, who says she trusted and befriended the woman who embezzled from her business, in her office in Oceanside on Thursday. HAYNE PALMOUR IV |
Most weekdays for three years, Dr. Julie Aspiras shared coffee and a laugh with a friend who was secretly stealing from her. Julie Hurkman, the owner of North County Yamaha, thinks she did the same, but for even longer.
Aspiras, whose medical practice is in Oceanside, says she unwittingly paid for two motorcycles, concerts, massages and even a gastric bypass surgery for her office manager, whom she loved as a dear friend.
But while Aspiras was doctoring patients, the office manager was doctoring the books.
And in San Marcos, Hurkman said she and her longtime bookkeeper laughed together, ate Easter dinner together, vacationed in San Francisco ---- and took a side trip to Alcatraz ---- with their families. But all the while, investigators suspect, the bookkeeper was stealing her money.
"I'm just totally betrayed," Hurkman said, "because I just really trusted her."
The typical embezzler is a woman in her 40s, often the bookkeeper, and generally a hard worker, according to Marquet International Ltd., a Boston firm that specializes in security consultations and investigations.
Among the firm's findings: Women are more likely to be embezzlers. But when men do it, they take more.
Marquet International's 2011 report on embezzlement bills itself as a review of 473 cases at varying points in the judicial process across the country last year. The cases primarily were those in which the thief embezzled more than $100,000.
Among findings in the study, released in January:
- The average scheme lasted nearly 5 years;
- Use of forged or unauthorized company checks were the most common form of embezzlement;
- Gambling was the motivating factor in about 1 of every 5 cases.
"There is a big connection between embezzlement and gambling," Varnau said. "We see a lot of ATM withdrawals or company checks cashed at casinos" in such cases.
Embezzlers typically emerge at companies or organizations with 50 or fewer employees, Varnau said. An embezzler will often be the person with control of cash income and outflow, Varnau said.
They come in early, stay late and rarely take vacations.
They test by taking small amounts, then learn how to game the system.
The thieves sometimes tell themselves it's a temporary loan, just to make ends meet until payday. But then they take again. And again.
"If you are greedy, it is going to catch up with you quicker," Varnau said. "If you steal big, you get caught earlier. ... If you are a low-key, small-amount, under-the-radar embezzler, you are gonna get away with it for a long, long time."
Varnau said the average case involves total thefts of about $150,000 and runs two, maybe three years.
"Most of it is spent on living well," Varnau said. "For the most part, the money is gone. It's been spent and it's not coming back."
Harold Anderson is a major-fraud prosecutor with the Riverside County district attorney's office, and he said he sorts embezzlers into two types: In one large group is the sort of thief described by Varnau and the Marquet study. And in a much smaller grouping, he said, are all the other embezzlers.
$1 million in designer clothes
There wasn't much under the radar about the embezzlement committed by Annette Yeomans, who used nearly $10 million stolen from her San Marcos employer to finance trips, casino binges and $1 million in designer clothes. She converted a bedroom in her San Marcos home into a closet, complete with a crystal chandelier, granite island and plasma TV.
Her arrest marked the biggest take-down of a single embezzler in local history, Varnau said.
Yeomans, the company's finance executive, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in July 2009. But when embezzlers go to jail, their white-collar crimes generally mean that they only serve half of their sentence.
Such chopped-in-half sentences frustrate Aspiras, an Oceanside doctor whose medical manager was jailed for stealing a reported $90,000.
"She got two years in prison, but she only served one year and now she is out," Aspiras said.
Victims of embezzlement say the loss of money hurt, but the deepest hurt was the betrayal. Anderson, in Riverside, said he had one case in which the thief had also been the one to put together a slide-show memorial for her boss when his son died.
Aspiras said the theft by her employee, Stephanie Lynn Morgan, was so surprising that other employees refused to believe it was true and initially became angry with the doctor for sullying Morgan's name.
Bringing Mom to work
"The trust was there," said Aspiras. "She was my right hand."
The doctor said Morgan was a military wife who "painted a beautiful picture of her family," and who even brought her mother to the office when she visited from the East Coast.
Morgan siphoned one business account until there was just 14 cents left.
A credit company was the first to notify Aspiras of suspicious activity. When that call came, Morgan left work and never returned, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Anna Winn said.
Similarly, last fall in San Marcos, Hurkman, the owner of North County Yamaha, was sitting across the desk from her bookkeeper when she got the call from a credit company, according to investigators.
The bookkeeper, Carrie Richardson, bolted from the office, leaving her purse behind, according to a search warrant affidavit in the case. Hurkman said she believed Richardson ---- who was also renting a home from Hurkman ---- took her kids and fled the state.
The situation led Hurkman to alert Escondido Pop Warner football, where Richardson served as a volunteer treasurer for three years. Investigators said in court documents the theft from the league might have been around $100,000, while the Yamaha shop was missing more than $45,000.
No charges have been filed against Richardson.
Prevention
Varnau suggests that business owners divide the bookkeeping work among at least two people. Anderson said he advises people to include a rider on their insurance policy to cover embezzlement.
Both advised creating a system of checks and balances.
Varnau has five financial crimes detectives for the entire county of San Diego, and two of them handle embezzlement cases. As of late April, the two detectives had 41 open cases, the sergeant said.
"There's always a paper trail," Varnau said. "That's the one good thing about financial crimes. It's not a whodunit, it's how big is the loss?"
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