Honesty

 Back in the 80’s, when I was just a “baby lawyer”, I worked at a firm that specialized in fidelity and surety cases.  We handled a lot of cases where an employee stole from an employer, but the employer very wisely purchased employee dishonesty insurance to cover the loss.

We handled all kinds of employee cases, from the messenger who stole petty cash to finance his drug habit to the chief financial officer who juggled bank accounts to support her post-divorce lifestyle, from the guy stealing inventory to sell at the flea market to the executive who sent millions of stolen dollars to an offshore bank account. People have very creative ways to steal from their employer.

The reason I mention this?

Drew leases his car, and the current lease is about to expire.  He wants to replace the car with a newer model.  He’s been leasing from the same dealership since …well, he’s gotten several cars from this dealer.   

So we headed over to the dealer Friday afternoon to choose a new car and to arrange the return of the car he’s leasing now.  And Drew told the salesman that he’s a loyal customer because he always gets a good deal, and because the dealer has a great service department.  And then he said “I really liked working with John Doe in the service department and was sad to see him go.”

And then the salesman spilled the tea.

“John and his manager were doing bad things.  Very bad things.  Really bad.  The police were here. Lights, sirens, the works.”

The salesman wouldn’t tell us what kind of “bad things” John was doing.

But I’m pretty sure I know.

When you tell a customer “this service usually costs $600, but I can do it for $400 if you pay cash,” it usually means the cash is going into the employee’s pocket and not the employee’s bank account.  Drew told me John offered him that kind of deal many times.  

There were probably inventory discrepancies that couldn’t be explained.  That’s how guys like John usually get caught.

Oh, well … I guess honesty still matters.