The Crime I’ll Never Understand

A few weeks back, a woman who was serving as a fundraiser for the PTA for my local school was arrested for embezzlement. She has been accused of stealing $5,000 and using part of it to pay for an American Girls birthday party for her daughter. This theft was caught by an audit of the PTA’s finances.

Crimes like these to me make no sense because there is a record of this theft and these records can be audited. When I heard about the crime, I joked that she was better off robbing the bank. The joke could be considered in bad taste because I found out her husband died year ago drowning after his car landed in Hewlett Bay while trying to avoid the police after he robbed a local bank.

Every few months, I read the Department of Labor’s webpage of actions taken by the Security of Labor against plan sponsors accused of theft. Having been involved on a handful of occasions where plan sponsors and fiduciaries are accused of theft, I’m just amazed how people who are entrusted with the retirement plan assets of their employees would then abuse that trust by converting those assets for their own personal use with almost no chance that they won’t be caught because there are enough checks and balances such as a Form 5500 and competent third party administrators to help minimize that risk of theft.

I have been accused every now and then of having no empathy, but I will never understood why plan sponsors and fiduciaries commit such crimes and think they can get away with it.

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