An Alberta Charity Was Defrauded Of Over $200K & Its Own Employee Happened To Be The Culprit
She put the money right into her own bank accounts. 😬
Police in Alberta have laid charges after a local charity in Edmonton was defrauded of over $200,000.
In a news release on Tuesday, October 12, Edmonton Police confirmed that following "an extensive" investigation a woman had been charged for embezzling several hundred thousand dollars from the Alberta Foster and Kinship Association (AFKA).
Back on October 27, 2020, the AFKA reported to police that they had discovered their accountant had been transferring funds from one of AFKA's accounts right into her own personal accounts over a span of 10 months.
"When a financial audit was taking place at AFKA, the employee, Brenda Rabie did not come in for her shift; this led to the organization discovering the fraudulent activity," the police release read.
Forty-three-year-old Brenda Rabie was charged on October 7 after police found that the money was e-transferred into multiple accounts controlled and registered to Rabie herself.
The company lost over $209,000 and police said the offences took place between November 2019 and October 2020.
Rabie was charged with theft over $5,000 and fraud over $5,000.
"AFKA has been fully cooperative throughout this investigation, and we truly feel for them, as that's the last thing you ever want to discover about an employee," Constable Shawn Joseph said in the release.
To avoid this happening to other businesses, police encourage organizations to divide their accounting functions using a system of checks and balances to ensure that not only one person has control.
Police also recommend that businesses implement measures to protect themselves from fraud, like background and reference checks of potential hires and procedures that require multiple signatories.