Episode 4: Greed and Deceit: The Moral Failures of an Accountant Turned Criminal

Today’s episode unveils the moral failures of an accountant turned criminal. Paul Henri Harleman was a contract bookkeeper in Hawaii who used his personal relationships to defraud his clients out of over 1.2 million dollars over a four year period. Paul started off with a fantastic reputation as a guy well trusted by his clients. It all changed when he became greedy and decided to deceive his clients, many of which were small business owners and nonprofit organizations. He opened up an LLC called Pacific Media Group, named as such because it was similar to the name of one of his client’s vendors. This allowed him to charge his client’s credit card and divert the money into his LLC’s bank account. Once his initial scheme was successful, Paul was emboldened to take it even further, committing 6 counts of wire fraud and 8 counts of money laundering before finally being arrested.

 

Talking Points:

• The story of Paul Henri Harleman and how he used his intimate knowledge of his clients’ businesses and accounts to defraud them for years undetected
• Paul’s payroll scheme through his LLC
• Similar cases of bookkeepers abusing their relationships with clients
• Common fraud schemes used to steal from small businesses
• Internal control measures small business owners can implement to protect themselves from fraud
• The value of an audit trail and creating deterrents 
• Why small businesses need to establish a Code of Ethics for all employees to be trained on
• An example of one of Paul’s actual emails to the judge assigned to his case
• The conclusion of Paul’s story, his final charges and sentencing 

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm