Employee Embezzeling Money for her and others!?!?

What is the name of your state? California

Brief and to the point...here you go...

- previous bookkeeper hired about 2 years ago.
- came into position, and owner thought that she had done a decent job.


- first -
- recently, we discovered that sales people were being paid their draw plus a the full commission on their sales.
- does the company have the right to ask the sales people for the overpayment back?
- this has gone on since 2000.

- second -
- in discovering sales people overpayment, we discovered that she had overpaid herself as well.
- there was a verbal agreement between the owner and the bookkeeper that she was to work 32 hours a week, having fridays off.
- paystubs indicate, 88 hours + 11 overtime, every two weeks
- this happened consistently for the duration of her employment.

- what can the company do to recoup their loss? this lady is no longer with the company, all of the info was found after she left.

Please help!

I would give you this same answer regardless of where you live, but considering the fact that California laws are often different, and more employee friendly, than that of the other 49 states, it's particularly important there.

Call the state DOL, Wage and Hour division. They will be able to answer your questions with more authority than anyone here. You can call anonymously, and you don't even have to identify if you are the employer or the employee (at least in my state you don't). Your questions are very state and situation specific, and any answer we could give you would be no more than a semi-educated guess.

I don't mean to sound naive, but what does DOL mean?

Thanks again for your help!

s_anderson27 said:

I don't mean to sound naive, but what does DOL mean?

Thanks again for your help!

Click to expand...

My response:

It means Department of Labor - - however, I'm sure cbg meant to say, "Department of Industrial Relations."

Copy and paste this into your browser and click on "Contact Us."

http://www.dir.ca.gov/

(Do not copy the [/URL] on both sides)

IAAL

I think you are going to have trouble on Both counts.

How can you prove the sales people were in cahoots with her to rip off the company?

Since it was everybody, as opposed to one person, i cant imagine the Labor dept will force the repayment.

Second since her employment contract was NOT in writing, how can you prove she was only supposed to work 32 hours a week.

Two major problems.......


You need something in writing to show they KNEW they were overpaid...without that you might as well eat the loss, and just think of the bad publicity you will get by trying sue all your employees for the money back...

I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, right now!

Sono, once again you don't know what you're talking about.

the sales people do have their contracts in writing, the bookkeeper's was a verbal agreement between her and the owner...last i heard, i thought that verbal agreements were binding in the state of california?

Verbal agreements have the possibility of being binding in any State. That's not the issue here however.

(1) Did she actually work those hours? If she didn't and falsified her time card, then it's a theft/dishonesty issue and you need to pursue that - i.e. file criminal charges.

(2) If she actually did work those hours, then you are SOL. No matter what the agreement was when she was hired, if the employer "suffered" her to work, she has to be paid. If an employee is working unathorized hours, that's a discipinary situation, not a pay issue.

No matter what the case, there do not appear to be adequate controls in your payroll practices. Supervisors/managers need to be reviewing and approving time cards BEFORE they go to payroll to make sure they're accurate. (Where was this person's supervisor when all this was going on for two years???) Your company needs a complete revamp of their payroll practices and perhaps other financial practices as well (payables, receivables, cash deposits, etc.)

Thanks for the reply.

I realize that they need to revamp their financial practices, that is WHY i am working there now. The lady that had done this did not work the hours that she paid herself (not to mention the fact that she didn't write any of them down).

Trust me, this is not a situation that i would have like to walked into. There is no way that this lady could have worked 88 hours with 10-12 hours overtime consistently for two years over each period of time being 2 weeks, with fridays off. That would mean that she would have to work 12.5 hour days? right, that girl was in there at 8:30 and left by 4:30, and got paid for her hour lunch. Even if she did pay herself for the lunch, then that would only be an 8 hour day, making it a total of 64 hours over a two week period.

To me, it looks like she took the money because she knew that the owner didn't look at the records. my question really is, what can the owner do about the theft? is there anything that he can do? and if so, what?

I am sorry to keep you busy with this, it's just that it's so frustrating, everyday a new problem comes up and there is nothing that i can do about it.

The other thing is, the owner apparently went to an attorney about the sales people (we're talking like 100,000 over the last two years) and wrote letters to the sales people requesting the moneys back. To me this doesn't sound right, i think he should just consider the loss and move on (especially if he doesn't get the moneys back, and then he's out leagal fees too).

I appreciate your help!

Contact the police and file a criminal complaint against her. They/the DA's office will investigate and determine whether there is sufficient evidence to file charges and prosecute.

The company also has the option (in addition to criminal charges) to pursue civil action against her for restitution. That will be easier to pursue if criminal liability has been established but it's not required.

Yes, it certainly looks like she took the money because she could after she realized nobody would know what she was doing. I hope the owner has wised up.

you know full well the sales people will walk out of their jobs and the owner will LOSE MORE MONEY... since there will be no experienced people to sell your services/product.

I would eat the loss for now, until you can prove criminal activity.