Embezzling depletes small firms
BY RON SYLVESTER

When office manager Sherry Murphy told a patient she only accepted cash, it didn't register right with a co-worker. After all, the offices of Kansas Neurological Consultants, where Murphy controlled the accounts, took credit cards. Co-workers began looking through the trash by Murphy's desk and found empty envelopes from patients whose payments had not been entered in the business accounts.

On Tuesday, Murphy faces sentencing for embezzling more than $120,000 over a two-year period from the office of neurologist Dilawer Abbas. "In a small business, you have only a few people assigned to certain jobs, so everything works on trust," Abbas said, "especially in a medical practice where the physician is busy seeing patients."

Each year, Wichita police investigate more than 120 cases of embezzlement, from clerks stealing petty cash to office managers stealing hundreds of thousands. "Businesses get hit from internal theft just as hard as theft by people from the outside," said police Lt. Hassan Ramzah. "In many cases it's just as devastating.'

"A lot of people have compulsions, whether it's shopping, gambling or drugs that compels them to spend more than their lifestyles allow," said Dan Monnat, a Wichita lawyer experienced in defending financial crimes. And some people have such a background in abject poverty, they never think they'll have enough of anything," he said.