The recent sentencing of former sheriff’s deputy Jason Lei for embezzling around $13,000 from the deputies union is yet another mark on a countywide rap sheet.
Lei returned from the Philippines in June to face the charges and pay back the union – after fleeing overseas in 2010 during the Hollister police investigation – and received an eight-month jail sentence earlier this month.
Since late 2009, there have been five high-profile embezzlement cases involving people in positions of trust within local organizations. They include thefts – with a wide range of five- and six-figure dollar amounts stolen – from the now-defunct San Juan Bautista Chamber of Commerce, the Hollister Heat softball league, an Australian cattle dog rescue group, the Hollister police union and the sheriff deputies union.
The embezzlement cases signal a larger problem: There appear to have been lacking controls in place to prevent such white-collar crimes within local organizations.
Considering the extraordinary risk in neglecting to install such control mechanisms – example: San Benito County in the past half-decade – it would be well worth the investment for local business groups, businesses and nonprofit organizations to coordinate an anti-embezzlement workshop focusing on the key steps involved in such loss prevention.
Certainly, there is no shame in getting a refresher on the appropriate methods for dealing with signatures, statements and other factors involved in running responsible organizations.
As the community has learned with those five embezzlement cases, neglecting to take a few basic steps or trusting one person with an organization’s money can carry an extraordinary, unnecessary risk.
