Davis Vann Criminal Justice/ Per. 1 Small Business Crime Crimes vary from murder to robbery to embezzling, but nonetheless, these all in some way or another have major negative impacts on any community and the individuals involved. Embezzling, along with many other crimes relate to business, and occur slowly over time and can destroy a company. The Revised Code of Washington (RCW) states embezzlement as, “In an indictment or information for larceny or embezzlement of money, bank notes, certificates of stock, or valuable securities, or for a conspiracy to cheat or defraud a person of any such property, it is sufficient to allege the larceny or embezzlement, or the conspiracy to cheat and defraud, to be of money, bank notes, certificates of …show more content…
In the case of Donald Gasser- who plead guilty to wire fraud and creating a fake name to embezzle money to his home- his company had to recover from the financial damages that he caused. The four major impacts of these type of crimes are: net losses, disrupting operations, messing up accounting, and breaking trust. In regards to net losses, “For new or small businesses, which already face tremendous hurdles to survive, embezzlement could very well be the kiss of death that puts a business under and prevents it from even getting off the ground” (Ray). One form of embezzlement is overcharging customers for a product and using the excess money as personal gain. When that individual gets exposed for embezzlement, not only does that person lose their reputation but also the company’s name because customers will feel misrepresented. Accounting of a company is one of the impacted with embezzling, “If a substantial amount of money is embezzled, the company might make irrational decisions. For example, the owners might believe they have a big enough surplus to completely restock and then order a new item. If their real available funds are much lower than accounting figures show, the company can be thrown into turmoil and may have to cut other costs just to keep up basic operations.” (Ray). The trust of workers and owners of a company are all shifted after an embezzlement incident. The stigma of embezzlement is that a boss is not willing to address the needs of his workers, and ultimately changing the culture and spirit of a company. Also, after an internal business crime is exposed, owners will place stricter rules and regulations on workers to prevent future crimes to occur. This however creates a barrier between workers and owners and trust among each other