Police charged a woman with embezzling $139,000 worth of printer toners from her former employer, an insurance company in Michigan.

The authorities allege the woman, who worked for the organization for seven-and-a-half years, used her company credit card to purchase toner that she then resold for cash on a number of occasions.

After the woman quit her job in March 2018, the owners of the insurance company looked over her company credit card purchases and found an unanticipated transaction. They noticed that she purchased $9,376.79 in toner from Dallas?based FPC Office Solutions. However, the organization does not buy supplies from FPC. The woman also had the toner delivered to her home.

Several employees said that they had seen the woman using eBay at work, which led the owners to speculate that she was selling the toners on eBay and keeping the proceeds.

When police searched the organization's credit card statements, they discovered that the woman made $139,874.65 in purchases from FPC between November 2016 and March 2018.

The woman initially told police that she had permission from her superiors to do business with FPC. She said she had the toners shipped to her home because she often works from home and prints a lot of work documents there. She claimed that no one told her not to use the company credit card.

However, she later admitted to selling 10 toners on eBay when she was going through a hard time financially. She eventually told police that she used her company card to purchase 75 sets of toners that she sold in 32 transactions. The employer also discovered a printer that was ordered in 2014, which they never received. Cole Waterman "Hemlock woman embezzled $139,000 in printer toners to sell on eBay, police say" mlive.com (May 08, 2019).

Commentary

There are some easy steps to prevent embezzlement by credit card:

First, establish clear guidelines on how credit cards are to be used, including no purchases for personal items.

Limit the number of employees with credit cards. Having a credit card is not a right of employment.

Routinely check card purchases for legitimacy. Investigate any charge that is not routine.

Ask for alerts from the credit card company when purchases are made using the card.

Place limits on the amount employees can purchase with a card.

Require employees with cards to submit all receipts and an explanation for the purpose. Make certain that the receipts "match up" with the purchase.

Avoid allowing an employee with a credit card to be the person charged with making credit card payments or reviewing purchases.