Posted on 01/25/2016 5:17:13 PM PST by Elderberry
Cheryl Vickers almost got away it.
She retired at 65 last year from the Houston Police Federal Credit Union. No one seeming the wiser to what she had done with at least $1.2 million.
But the vice president for accounting's scheme was discovered after a customer came to the credit union with a "stale" check to request it be reissued. A stale check would be one issued months or years earlier by the credit union, but never cashed.
The credit union found records that showed Vickers had already re-issued the customer's check .
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
OK that’s just bad auditing. The first things you look at when auditing an accounts payable department are the void checks, the stale dated checks, and the account reallocations. Every one of those represents a problem of some sort so you want to look for patterns. This is a public entity so they should have been subject to regular audits. Somebody needs to lose their job for missing this.
Phar-Mor, Enron, etc.
I’m curious why she had check signing authority.
“....She faces up to 30 years in federal prison. A judge has ordered her to repay the money.....”
Unless the Judge has ordered the immediate seizure of all of her present and future assets, he is just performing a rhetorical “NYC Public Urination” in the wind.
Other officers could not write? (note: it is a Progressive ghetto).
She could write cursive and none of the other officers could?
Check-signing authority isn’t an issue if someone else reviews cleared items and reconciles the account; nowadays many businesses have signatures automatically affixed by the accounting software (since live people are rarely reviewing checks that clear unless they are presented in person to be cashed).
She didn't need it. All she had to do was order the check reissued with a different address, maybe a P.O. box. She could then collect the check, munge up a signature, and deposit it in her own account as a third party check.
My bank won’t accept third party checks. I served as Treasurer for a non-profit for eight years. Insisted in the beginning that all requests for checks be signed by the president. Person requesting check had to sign the request when they asked for the money and again when they received the check and enter the check number on the request. Also had a separate three person audit committee audit all the financial records at least once a year.
Always amazed at the number of non-profits that have no written accounting rules or any audit and seem to leave all financial transactions in the hands of one person.
Which accounts did the money come from, the customers with the stale checks? How did no one notice money missing from their accounts?
Former San Diego mayor, Maureen O'Connell stole over two million dollars from a charity to feed a gambling addiction. Rita Crundwell, embezzled over 50 million dollars from the Dixon, Illinois city treasury over a thirty year period. She was comptroller and chief financial officer for the city.
If you know a female in charge of finances for some firm or org. you're a member of who likes to gamble, better check the books regularly. Many of the female embezzlers stole to feed a gambling addiction.
No, I don't hate women. I love my wife...even when she became enraged when I told her the case of females beating males in one crime area. "Men commit a lot more crimes!!!" she screamed at me. That's true...but in one area of crime, females "excel"....embezzling.
Houston
Shelia Jackson Lee’s district
No mug shot
She’s District18.
Fortunately not mine.
My accountant absconded with the accounts payable.
My Dad wanted me to go into accounting so I could take over his accounting business.
Not for me.
Maybe I should have listened to him.
Accountants are those who don’t have enough personality to become actuaries.
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