Studies show that white-collar criminals are, on average, older, more highly educated, more family oriented and go to church more often, Greenlee said.
“They look like us,” she said.
Greenlee described a “fraud triangle” that would explain how otherwise law-abiding people would become embezzlers.
The first leg is some perceived financial pressure. It could be the result of addiction, or bad family budgeting, or a medical emergency. It could be a true need or a perceived need, such as the need to make payments on an expensive car. But it’s almost always kept a secret.
“Usually, it’s an unsharable pressure,” Greenlee said.
The second leg is the opportunity to embezzle.
The third is the ability to rationalize the behavior. Often times, the embezzler starts small, doesn’t get caught, and keeps going, Greenlee said.
Wanda Fox, 67, worked for the Antioch Shriners, as a secretary then as office manager, for nine years before her thefts were discovered. Fox and her husband filed for bankruptcy in November, listing $118,000 in assets and $184,000 in liabilities. Unsecured claims, most of them credit purchases, totaled more than $86,000.
Fox, Andrea Arde and Tina Jaynes, all convicted in recent months of stealing six-figure amounts from their employers, were all longtime employees. Arde worked as a bookkeeper and office manager for a group of family-owned companies for 10 years. Jaynes worked for Gemini Eye Care for at least four years.
They did not have elaborate schemes. They wrote company checks to themselves and cashed them or deposited them in their bank accounts.
Fox also withdrew $10,000 in four installments from Shriners accounts, even though she had no authority to withdraw money.
Arde forged her employer’s signature on checks, according to a lawsuit filed by a group of businesses she served. Arde shifted money between different accounts to conceal her thefts, according to Brookville police.
Arde’s employers knew her for 30 years. Larry Newsome, whose signature she forged, was the best man at Arde’s wedding. When Arde needed money to bury her husband, the Newsomes bought a cemetery lot and paid for the funeral. That same month, she stole $5,200 from them, Newsome said in February.
Arde has filed an intent to appeal her conviction. Now indigent, she has a court-appointed attorney. In January, she told Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Barbara P. Gorman she only had $200 in a checking account.
Gorman, who was so angered by Arde’s actions that she rejected a plea agreement that would have put Arde in prison for four years, told Arde “there is no way anyone will see a penny of restitution.”
Arde and Jaynes are both being sued by their former employers to recover the stolen funds. But Greenlee said that, in all three cases, the chances are most of the money will never be recovered.
In most fraud cases, she said, the perpetrator doesn’t steal to save.
“They usually spend it,” she said. “He’s not saving for his kid to go to Harvard.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2057 or lgrieco@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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