Did your business partner steal from your company?
On behalf of Kadish & Associates Law Group posted in Business Litigation on Friday, November 22, 2019.
You start to notice a few small financial issues at your business. Maybe the books do not quite balance out. Maybe the amount of money pulled from your accounts for a payment to a vendor is a bit higher than the actual bill was for. Maybe there are withdrawals that you knew nothing about, and there does not seem to be any reason for them.
These can be red flags that your business partner has started using the company as their own personal bank, essentially robbing you and the company. This is tough to detect in a lot of cases because your partner, like yourself, has access to the accounts that they want to steal from. The use itself isn’t illegal. It’s the manner of use that concerns you.
Your partner may try to excuse their actions if you confront them. For instance, in some cases, business partners start to think of the company’s money as their own money, so they don’t really think they’re stealing. They feel like they earned the money and they can do whatever they want with it. This can lead them to commit crimes like theft, embezzlement, fraud or some combination of these things.
This type of financial crime can really hurt you and the company. If you have investors or shareholders, it hurts them as well. No matter how your partner tries to rationalize what they did, you may decide that it’s time to take legal action. That’s when you need to know about all of the options you have for this complex situation.