Employers invest a lot of time and money when making employment decisions about both job applicants and current employees.  These decisions should be made on the basis of the most accurate information available. Aware of the fact that 40 percent of job applicants – or more – are not completely truthful on their resumes and employment applications, many employers contract with third-party consumer reporting agencies to do comprehensive background checks on these applicants and employees.

In 2000, Janet and James Baker, the creators of the Dragon voice recognition software, sold their company to a Belgian competitor – Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products – for $580 million in L&H stock.  When L&H collapsed into bankruptcy shortly after the sale, the L&H stock became worthless and the Bakers and the other Dragon shareholders were left with nothing.  The Bakers personally lost over $300 million. The Bakers are suing Goldman Sachs, their financial

Some friends have offered their thoughts on the two-part embezzlement series.  I want to share one particularly acute set of observations, offered by a retired CEO and principal shareholder of a local manufacturer, whom I will call “Steve.”  Steve’s company employed (and still employs) several hundred people; and, over the course of several decades, he developed a keen understanding of the relationship between owners and employees. In Steve’s view, my series neglected the principal protagonist

Joseph Phan, a long term Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) employee, was arrested in March 2012 for embezzling $1,100,000 over a period of four years.  Here is the URL to the Seattle Times article:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017647040_sputheft03m.html. Phan fits a familiar profile.  Phan is 44, worked alone, had no criminal record and had worked for the City since 1995.  He was a SPU engineer, met with customers and collected customer payments for hook up charges.  In 2006, he

Business theft, happens every day in every sector of the economy and it is perpetrated by the most ordinary and unassuming employees, clerks, salesmen and bookkeepers.

Recently, a client asked me to review what he described as a standard (ho hum) non-disclosure agreement (NDA). My heart froze when I read it. Buried on page three, in paragraph 9, was a pithy five line non-circumvention clause. The clause was sweeping, so broadly worded, in fact, that it functioned like a non-compete agreement. Had my client signed the NDA, his counterparty could have made serious mischief and, perhaps, forced him out of business. Yikes!