Mr. Christopher Firle was the chief financial officer of a holding company that managed multiple car dealerships.
Mr. Firle allegedly used company credit cards to pay for over $750,000.00 in personal expenses. Some of these expenses included tickets to sporting events and purchases at Bergdorf Goodman, Chanel, Hermès, Nordstrom, and Tiffany & Co. Mr. Firle also allegedly initiated over 30 unauthorized wire transfers from the holding company to a family member, issued over 30 unauthorized company checks to himself, and withdrew more than $50,000.00 from a company account without authorization. Furthermore, Mr. Firle also allegedly issued himself almost $160,000.00 in excess bonus payments.
From January 2016 through September 2019, Mr. Firle allegedly misappropriated over $1.9 million in total from his employer. Mr. Firle being able to withdraw monies without authorization highlights a failure in internal controls by allowing the initiation of payments without the need for multiple signatories or controls for the transactions to be processed.
The variety of methods used in this scheme shows a lack of safeguards to prevent Mr. Firle from having access to many different means of access to company funds without requiring additional authorization or oversight. In the future, the holding company could benefit from requiring more than a single individual to not just be able to initiate payments but also to reconcile and oversee funds and accounts.
Photo by Pixabay
