Employee Theft for Year and a Half

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Indiana
For the past two fiscal years our company accountant has told us things have come up short and said we have a thief and we need to check into it. We are a very small company and everyone there has been there for years. Two of the employees are/were my best friends. We couldn't figure it out. I'd say most of the time the register totals came out at the end of the night except for a few times that led to suspicion. We've looked for two years and couldn't figure out who it was and it looked like the money was missing at the bank. We called in an investigator to question the employees and one called in sick. We questioned everyone ourselves a week before the investigator showed up and this person got very defensive and unwilling to co-operate. Now I have checked the reg. logs and comared them to the lottery statement and found that there are hundreds of dollars of lottery payouts on this persons shift every time he's worked for the past year and a half. You can literaly see when it started and how its progressed. I have a lottery official coming in to verify the payouts and figure out which is the payouts he used to cover up the theft. The person this leads to was one of my friends and he has kids and a family and good full time job. I figure if he gets convited he'll loose his other job, public embarrassment, could destroy his family not mention all the other legal trouble. The amount that hasn't been verified is close to 25000.00 We have had the times when the registers didn't come out on his shift and at the end of the week the spread sheets showed we were off so I'm sure he probably made off with more then this. My question is this, if we come up with a figure by varifying with the lottery official which payouts are false, can we offer to let him pay back that figure and not ruine our case if he refuses?

not really understanding what you mean. Are you asking if you first offer to allow him to repay the money and if he accepts, you will not file criminal charges but if he refuses, you want to file criminal charges?

I'm not real familiar with the lottery folks but you might talk to them before deciding anything. As I understand the lottery situation, they might be able to file a complaint or at least insist on it.

It's a real sucker punch when a trusted employee steals from you, isn't it. No matter what their excuse.

jk, I suspect from the description that the payouts were entered on the register as lottery payouts, but weren't entered into the lottery system - so although the lottery folks can probably provide a list of bona fide payouts to be compared to those on the register tape, they wouldn't have suffered any loss. But I do agree, if the lottery commission suffered a loss they can be expected to prosecute the person who caused that loss, without regard to your feelings in the matter.

mky69, how do you picture that this person is going to pay back $25,000? Most people who I know who work as cashiers and steal from their employers are not going to be able to produce that type of money, and even if they promise to do so they'll soon be missing payments. Further, if you enter into a civil settlement, even if the cashier doesn't keep his end of the deal you may find that a prosecutor will no longer be interested in pursuing a theft or embezzlement case due to that settlement.

They did say that the person has another decent paying job,the statue of limations might come in to play if this drags out. An option could be to confront the person and say listen I know what happened we can drag this out and you will be arrested or I want u to avoid that. Tell them they can pay lets say a big amount up front and set a deadline,this can still cost problems b.c the person may just stop paying. The person should be gratful to repay what he took and avoid legal trouble,u are giving them a gift. I would discuss this with a lawyer but the longer you wait to call the police,it migth also make it hardier to prove.

This person is an advisor at an auto plant here in town, he and another friend of mine have been working for me part time. The innocent friend, since about 96' the other person of interest has been here about 4 years. I'm sure he has a 401k plan, his wife's family are very well off. He has the means to repay. My question is if I go to him and ask him to repay and make it clear that if he does pay, charges won't be filed, will that affect our case against him if he refuses? Also I feel I need to be very careful how I go to him with this because of the laws of accusing people. Thats why Im using the term person of interest but there is no doubt as to who and how. I have a paper trail since may of 09' to Nov.16th of 2010 that shows the payouts were all on his shifts and video showing him on the register the payouts were made at the time they were madefor the past 30 days. Doesnt show transaction but puts him at the scene of the crime consistently. I gave this person time off, didn't fire him. My uninvolved friend who also works with him at his full time job put two and two together and came to me Mondy and ask what was going on. I explained to him what we found but didn't name anyone. He went to this person trying to explain that the person that did this is better off paying back the money and not risk all the damaging effects this may have. The person of interest wouldn't admit he did it, instead mentioned that if the person did admit it the business they stole from could still file charges and mentioned that person may end up paying more then they stole. To me this was a third person confession if that makes sense. The lottery security officer should be in to go over this in the next day or two and we are contacting our attorney today. The police have already been notified but are waiting for us to get our papers (records of register lottery payouts vs. actual lottery payouts)

If you try to settle this civilly and that approach doesn't work, you risk that a prosecutor will decline to prosecute. You have a lawyer involved - talk to your lawyer about your strategy.

On the other hand, him making restitution, or promising to, does not automatically mean that criminal charges can't (or won't) be filed.

Mr K is correct that your attorney should be asked for the best way to proceed.

Thank you.

UPDATE: I'm going to post this to the end of the case for any future reference.

The suspect came to us and I let him know what we knew, without naming him. I explained in detail what the circumstances were and what the options were as far as paying us back in one lump sum or us turning over all the evidence to the police. I explained what evidence we had and were going to have after the lottery office confirmed which payouts were not actual and what video evidence we would have after we got all the dates and times of the false lottery payouts. He ask how much it was and I told him what it came out to but the lottery was going to confirm it and get back with me. He said he would call back. The lottery called today confirming his actions and I text him letting him know they had called and he called me back, I gave him the figure and told him we could have our attorney draw up a release form and confidentiality clause, he ask me to have them do it. He still hasn't said to me that he did this and I haven't seen him in person. I text him and told him they dropped off the papers to be signed. Haven't heard back as of yet. This happened at about 5pm today. An employee came in this afternoon and told me he was trying to recruite him to quit along with he and another employee saying we were accusing everyone here of stealing. The best advise I can give to someone in this situation is be patient and keep a cool head and watch what you say and how you say it. Use as much honey as possible to attract the suspected person back to you and make them feel as though they have a teflon bullet proof suit to wear to come back and repay you and hope for the best. If they can't pay you back, prosecute and turn it into your insurance. This has been drawn out and exhausting trying to find out what was going on and where our money has been going. Don't ever pass up the obvious by thinking a certain person would never do such a thing.

You are being very patient with this suspect. Based on his evasive behavior and trying to get the other employees to quit, you should have the PD file charges on him for embezzment. He seems like a person that would not negotiate a settlement. Maybe this way you can get some restitution. If this joker does want to settle somehow, have your attorney place a lien on his property for the total loss. That way he cannot get off the hook. Just my 2 cents.