Ms. Andrea Anderson worked as a part-time administrative employee of the Brotherhood of Shoe and Allied Craftsman (BSAC) from 2013 until 2022.
The union office for BSAC was inside the garage of Ms. Anderson’s father. Part of Ms. Anderson’s administrative duties included signing checks, secretarial work, and paying bills. Additionally, Ms. Anderson was a signatory on the union’s bank account, and therefore signed and prepared checks and had a union debit card. Having access to checks and the union’s bank account, Ms. Anderson embezzled a total of $39,169.00 from the union.
Ms. Anderson being able to sign checks should have also required authorization by another representative of BSAC to verify that the checks were are correctly addressed and amounts are verified. This would have led to the scheme coming to light if unauthorized checks are created or previously verified checks had been altered.
The pitfalls found when fraud is discovered are often linked to a failure of internal controls to mitigate fraud and ensure that processes are continuously developing as methods of fraud continuously change.
Photo by José Martin Segura Benitesites
