Telltale signs point to possible criminal activity

Larry Ellison has been a certified fraud examiner at Kirkpatrick, Phillips & Miller for more than four years, but the position of CFE hasn't been around much longer than that.

"Fraud examiners came into existence after workers began looking into government crime," he said.

"It became obvious that there were a lot of job fields with white-collar criminals in them," he said.

In addition to offering advice on preventing and recovering from white-collar crime, certified fraud examiners can help the employer determine if theft is occurring.

According to Ellison, several factors are usually present in the white-collar criminal.

"There's a financial need, either a real or a perceived one," he said. "There's the opportunity for committing the crime. People also rationalize the crime by telling themselves, I'll pay it back' or The company owes it to me."'

Workplace crime is committed by men and women of varying ages and marital and economic statuses.

So how can an employer tell if someone is stealing from him?

"If the individual is having a problem paying his bills and all of a sudden the problem goes away, that's a pretty good indicator," Ellison said.

"Second," he added "the person may be living beyond their means by buying a new car or going on a vacation they can't afford on their salary."

He said many of the people who end up stealing from their employer do it because of ego, the need to pay for their vices such as gambling or drugs, the challenge of seeing if they can get away with it or because people perceive them as wealthy and they feel they have to keep up that lifestyle.