Employee allegedly takes Buzbee Dental for $215,000

A former Buzbee Dental administrator allegedly embezzled at least $215,000 from the practice between 1999 and 2005, Buzbee said he discovered in December.

Buzbee has turned over evidence to the Springfield Police Department, where detectives are investigating the case, according to Police spokesperson Matt Brown.

Criminal charges have not yet been filed, and sources would not release the former employee’s name. If the evidence is found compelling enough, detectives will forward the case to the Greene County prosecutor’s office, which has discretion over filing charges.

According to Buzbee, the former employee has since paid back the money.

However, he still feels betrayed and is telling his story in hopes of helping other employers prevent such fraud in their offices.

“(She) was like a sister … yeah, that really hurts,” Buzbee said of the unsuspicious employee, who he described as a married woman in her mid-40s with four children.

“She appeared to not live an extravagant lifestyle,” Buzbee added. “She was not driving Ferraris and wearing Prada or anything like that.”

The employee’s attorney, Stuart Huffman of Whiteaker & Wilson PC, declined to comment on the case.

Held the keys

Buzbee founded Buzbee Dental in 1977. He now operates the practice at 1244 E. Lark St. with his brother, Roger Buzbee, and two sons, Todd and Tyler Buzbee. All are dentists.

The employee in question served as practice administrator for 13 years. Buzbee said she held the keys to the practice. The family of doctors concentrated on teeth, and she took care of everything else.

The former administrator allegedly used clinic funds to pay personal credit card bills. She would code the checks as office supplies or lab equipment, Buzbee claims.

Buzbee Dental used accountancy firm Hlavacek, Morris, McIntyre, Yates & Danielson PC, but it didn’t catch the discrepancies. The accountants were instructed by Buzbee to trust the employee.

Accountant Wayne Hlavacek said Buzbee hired his firm to do compilation work – take basic financial information and produce monthly statements. While accountants would see a copy of a check that was written to a credit card company, there would be no reason for them to request the actual credit card statements.

Compilations are common services sought by small businesses, and nothing unusual presented itself to the accounting firm, Hlavacek said.

Reviews and audits are more in-depth services that likely would have caught any misdeed.

For Buzbee Dental, it’s been a lesson learned.

“There is much greater scrutiny,” said LeRoy Kaelke, Buzbee’s new practice administrator. “By my own choice, I simply send (the accountants) copies of every single statement.”

Whistle blower

“Our goal really isn’t to mudsling,” Kaelke said. “It’s to simply warn people that it’s a very real (danger).”

Kaelke, hired as business manager in April 2005, was the man who blew the whistle on the alleged stealing.

He began computerizing financial data in October in preparation for a conversion to QuickBooks. The former administrator had resisted automating the clinic’s bookkeeping for years.

But when the financials weren’t being accomplished in a timely manner, Buzbee and crew decided to go digital, said Kaelke.

While inputting months of data, Kaelke, a former family-law attorney, noticed a disheartening trend. Buzbee and Kaelke claim the former employee had been stealing between $1,800 and $4,600 every month for six years. Buzbee said he found proof that she stole $215,000, but he thinks it was even more.

The employee resigned in December and repaid the money by May.

Buzbee, who filed a police report in February, doesn’t know how she was able to repay the money so quickly. He said her attorney refused to turn over credit card receipts.

Police spokesman Brown said the case may remain under investigation for quite some time because the infraction dates back so long.[[In-content Ad]]