Here we go again!
Gary Stephens worked in the IT dept at Baylor Hospital in Dallas. This is a huge medical complex.
No doubt the budget runs to the hundreds of millions each year. Click for the story, it is a good one.
Gary created a fake company, submitted fake invoices, got the checks printed, picked them up and had his 59 yr old mother deposit them. So far so good. Take a relatively small amount over time, less than material in each billing, and perhaps you will not be noticed.
So how did he get caught? You gotta love it. Seems a Dallas County Commissioner bought a Bentley Continental GT trading in his Aston Martin (hey this is Dallas). Seems there were problems with the title, and Gary had traded or sold the Bentley to the dealership. Whoops, someone got to checking and gee what is an IT employee at Baylor doing with a Bentley.
A classic problem in any movie dealing with theft, is that some foolish crook wants to spend the money now. This of course is always a mistake and leads to suspicions. Had Gary and Mom quietly left for another country, preferably one without an extradition agreement, this might have worked. Although these days that is not enough money to live forever somewhere else.....
But would your audit program or internal controls have detected that invoice among the thousands that Baylor receives? Clearly Internal Controls were at fault as one person was able to submit, get approval, and a signature on the check, and picked up the check, all violations of a proper IC procedure.
The point is that inside crime is always perpetrated by someone who knows the system. The fact that all the work is on the computer will make discovering such stunts more difficult in the future.
I'm not suprised... Every single day that goes by there are new breaking stories of identity theft and breaking codes on previous successful operations such as the Federal Government agencies. No matter how many security controls, someone seems to find a way around the theft procedure. Clearly that indicates that IT security needs work. Hi-tech corporation leaders that produce the equipment are also cooperative to attempt to seek improved technology applications through software and man power. The fact that it happened at Baylor Hospital is simular actions that take place daily. This just shows to me that everyone is asleep at the switch when it comes to business. They disregard all signals. Internal Auditing is an area that offers alot of opportunity for accounting managers to expand and develope new ideas, technology, and control procedures.
Posted by: LeAnna M Nesbitt | July 26, 2009 at 11:50 PM
WEll of course the crooks are never asleep at the switch
It is a real challenge in such a large system to devise a system that gets things done in a reasonable time but safeguards assets.
I am sure Baylor is re examining how they do things
Here the re imbursement policy for travel is a nightmare of detail that takes time and frustrates everyone, there is a new system but we are all convinced they really want to beat uws out of the money we spend coing smoewhere.
Posted by: Dennis Elam | July 27, 2009 at 07:36 AM
It is sad to say but employers are going to start implementing polygraph tests before hiring these people.
Posted by: Rick | July 27, 2009 at 01:33 PM
Oh there is more to this story. check out crime blog from the reporter Jennifer Emily. She was in court this morning and the defense attorney Kevin Ross pushed back the plea hearing. Then she found out that at yesterdays plea hearing in Parker County for felony charge where Gary Stephens stole his dad's identity, defense attorney Kevin Ross withdrew as counsel. You gotta wonder what is going on!!! Maybe Kevin Ross took a second look at where his client's money was coming from!!!!!
Posted by: hello | July 29, 2009 at 04:05 PM
UPDATE: It's possible that the defense attorney, Kevin Ross, could be withdrawing from representing Stephens. He did just that yesterday in a Parker County case involving Stephens.
Original post: 11:07 a.m.
Gary Stephens was expected to plead guilty this morning to stealing $1.4 million from Baylor hospital.
But the hearing has been canceled.
No one seems to want to talk about the case or why the hearing didn't happen today. Not the prosecutor and not the defense attorney.
Hearings and trials are rescheduled all the time for various reasons. That's likely what will happen here.
Posted by: linda smith | July 29, 2009 at 05:16 PM