Famous last words: “We don’t need an outside auditor. We trust our people.”

It was that false sense of security that allowed a bookkeeper and financial officer to loot her employer for $9.9 million — that she used to buy 400 pairs of shoes that she stored in an enormous closet equipped with its own 32-inch plasma TV and a crystal chandelier.

Ouch!

Over a period of six years, she embezzled from her employer, a California cabinetmaker. Each week, she’d ring up $25,000 in credit card purchases (you’d have to work pretty hard to maintain that pace, wouldn’t you?).

The following Monday, she paid off the balance with company funds.

Some of the booty:

• 400 pairs of shoes, at least $240,000
• designer clothing, $300,000
• 160 purses at $2,000 each.

The company didn’t notice anything awry until a customer informed them that the customer’s check had been used to make a payment on the wayward employee’s account.

No auditor was ever hired to check the books, since this employee held such a position of trust.

In the meantime, her employer was forced to lay off employees and restructure operations due to money problems.

She was fired and turned over her assets. The company recouped about $2 million from selling her home, cars and other property.

It looks like she could end up getting a new room soon — one that’s significantly smaller than her shoe closet and with bars on the windows.

Tags: audit, auditor, embezzle