If you caught someone embezzling WWYD?

[Catwoman]

I would probably present the informal audit and ask her for an explanation. If she can't give one and show that the money is not in fact missing I would request a formal audit (not terribly expensive) and then based on the results of that contact the police to file charges if there is evidence that there was embezzlement. It is a crime and it sounds like she may have done it intentionally. Also, I believe in most places $6000 would be considered a felony...other people deserve to be protected from what she might do in the future.

A formal audit is going to be expensive, particularly when you consider that the missing amount is $6,000, not $600,000. There is really no such thing as a cheap audit.

 

Additionally, if this is a small organization with relatively simple accounting needs, a formal audit will probably be overkill. It should be fairly simple to go through the records and see where the money went -- or if, as is suspected, it was stolen.

[Little Nyssa]

And I would act quickly, because the more time you give her, the more time she has to move her own resources around so that she can claim that she 'can't' pay it back.

[Vida Winter]

We took our children's choir treasurer to court over a similar matter. It is much more common than you would think, and in our case the woman was a serial embezzler - she had stolen from the Girl Scouts previously. She was ordered to pay back the money but I'm not sure if she ever did. Very stressful situation at the time.

[Anne in CA]

My biggest problem with not reporting this person is that they WILL steal again, and next time maybe not from someone who can afford it. My SIL worked for a doctor's office that refused to report and embezzler and she went on to bigger things. She also broke back into the office and stole money and a laptop belonging to someone who worked there. The police caught her in the act because she set off the alarm somehow, even though she had the pass code and they had not changed it when they let her go. The doctors refused to press charges for the breaking and entering, too. ARGGHH.

[Word Nerd]

I would contact the bank and get her removed from the account immediately. Ask them if they need any other documentation to remove her from the account. I would also press charges after confronting her about the missing funds. This doesn't sound like incompetence or a computation error at all, and I would take it seriously and not blow it off.

 

It sounds like your organization needs to overhaul how it handles finances. The treasurer should give a report with the most recent income, expenses, and current balance at every meeting—that's a standard in any club or nonprofit organization I've ever been part of, and your group should implement it now going forward.

[Seasider]

I would contact the bank and get her removed from the account immediately. Ask them if they need any other documentation to remove her from the account. I would also press charges after confronting her about the missing funds. This doesn't sound like incompetence or a computation error at all, and I would take it seriously and not blow it off.

 

It sounds like your organization needs to overhaul how it handles finances. The treasurer should give a report with the most recent income, expenses, and current balance at every meeting—that's a standard in any club or nonprofit organization I've ever been part of, and your group should implement it now going forward.

 

Yes, her refusal to be removed from the account is a huge red flag. That's just weird.

[SebastianCat]

When she resigned as treasurer, she spent many weeks with excuses why she couldn't get the books to us etc. She actually refused to have her name taken off the account and the account currently has her name and the new treasurer on it. Yes, this raised red flags, but remember that up to this point we had no evidence that anything was amiss. So my question is, do we have to have her signature to remove her from the account? I was under the impression that we did. 

 

 

I was the treasurer of a small nonprofit homeschool group for several years, and recently resigned so that my family could move to a group that better fit our needs.   You will need a copy of the resignation letter in order to get her name taken off of the bank account, PLUS if your state has a registry for nonprofits, her name should be updated there as well.

 

Just taking her name off the bank account might not be enough to prevent future fraud.   You will also want to change the logon IDs and passwords for any online banking privileges, as well as invalidate any debit/credit cards that might still be in her posession.   

 

Even as a small nonprofit, I recommend that you survey your membership for legal and accounting help.   If one of your members isn't an attorney or accountant, it's certainly possible that a spouse works in that industry.   Definitely set up bylaws and policies once you get through this mess to ensure you don't end up in the same situation.   If this is a homeschool organization, I recommend Carol Topp's books and website - www.homeschoolcpa.com.    They were extremely helpful for my former group when we went through the process of incorporation, drafting bylaws, writing articles of incorporation, and selecting board members.