The Internet has become the marketplace of the millennium, enabling trade on a
global basis. Websites like Amazon.com, uBid, Yahoo and E-Bay are used by bold
thieves to sell your stolen
goods to unwary customers.
The Internet offers an online platform for trafficking in stolen Company goods
by computer-savvy employees.
By Kent Perkins
A large motion picture studio discovered expensive movie promotional merchandise,
limited in production and not available to the general public, was selling on
E-Bay. We were retained to investigate the matter because the items, which cost
$500 each, were being offered for $400 by an unknown local seller who had already
sold several of the expensive promo pieces.
We identified the seller as a female with an address a few blocks from the
studio, but she was not a studio employee. We asked for the home addresses of
all employees in the department from which the promotional merchandise was distributed,
and discovered a "hit" with a 5-year veteran of the department who
used the same address as the E-Bay seller. Examining his personnel file and
other pertinent sources, we determined the female E-Bay seller was actually
the male employee's "fiancé," named as beneficiary of his company
life insurance.
We examined videotape from a hidden
camera inside the work area from which the items were stolen, and observed
the suspect stuffing boxes full of company product. Although the covert
camera was in place for months, nobody ever took the time to review the
video footage until we asked for it.
The employer brought the employee in for an interview
with an experienced
investigator who specializes in conducting suspect
interviews. The employee admitted to having stolen more than $100,000 in
company property over the past three years. Additionally, he also admitted to
having sold
cocaine at work to several employees, naming all the drug buyers, and told
us where his cocaine was hidden inside his vehicle on company property! He provided
both written and tape-recorded confessions, in which he testified to the fair
and respectful treatment he received during the interview.
The police were called, the cocaine
was recovered, and the employee went to jail.
Detectives searched the employee's residence near the studio with a rapidly-obtained
search warrant, and more than $250,000 in company property was recovered, including
several historically important museum-quality items the studio did not even
realize were missing.
The employee is now serving eight years in prison
for grand theft, drug possession, and burglary. His former fiancé, who turned witness for
the State, was not prosecuted for selling the stolen
items on E-Bay. The police felt the case was better served keeping her only
as a witness, and she agreed to testify against the employee; their wedding
plans ended quickly thereafter.
Other employees named as buyers of illegal
drugs were subsequently apprehended in an undercover
drug investigation launched because of the information provided by the suspect
employee, and the studio terminated all of them a few weeks later. With the
terminations based on confessions, and with all interviewed employees testifying
they were treated respectfully and fairly during the interview process, no subsequent
job claims were ever made by those terminated.
Management found that only about a third of the terminated employees actually
needed to be replaced; the productivity of those involved was bad, perhaps due,
at least in part, to the distractions of substance
abuse at work.
About the Author:
Kent Perkins is managing partner and senior executive investigator with the corporate investigation firm Diversified Risk Management, Inc. Diversified provides a broad range of specialized risk management and corporate investigation services which control losses and minimize legal exposure to employers. The nationwide firm assists corporations, non-profit organizations and law firms in recognizing and responding to risks through a comprehensive and integrated suite of professional services. You can learn more about the firm by visiting DiversifiedRiskManagement.com,
calling 800.810.9508, or
. (CA. PI licenses PI-17240 and PI-23294)
Kent Perkins is managing partner and senior executive investigator with the corporate investigation firm Diversified Risk Management, Inc. Diversified provides a broad range of specialized risk management and 
