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He Signed the Partner's Name 806 Times. | Stolen From Within
This is episode two of four in the October series, Stolen From Within. All four episodes this month are solo — no guests, just the numbers and the stories law firm owners need to hear before they happen to you.
Today's case: Jairo Tomas Santos, the office manager at a San Francisco law firm who worked there for 22 years before federal prosecutors say he spent the last seven of them stealing nearly $1.2 million. His method? He wrote 806 unauthorized checks, forged the senior partner's signature on every single one, and deposited them into his personal bank accounts. Then he manipulated the firm's general ledger to cover his tracks.
806 checks. That's roughly 10 a month, every month, for seven years. About $14,000 a month flowing out of the firm's operating account into this man's personal account.
And nobody caught it. Because nobody was comparing the bank statements to the books.
In this episode, Kelley walks through:
- What Santos did and how he concealed it for seven years
- A plain-language explanation of separation of duties (using a lemonade stand)
- The difference between preventative controls and detective controls
- Specific steps you can put in place in your firm this week — positive pay, bank statement review, audit trail monitoring, access revocation, and more
- The four red flags present in this case — and how any one of them, caught early, could have changed the outcome
- Why good internal controls protect your honest employees, not just your money
Santos pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud. He was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison and ordered to pay back the full amount — nearly $1.2 million.
This series is called Stolen From Within, but unofficially it's Scary October. And the inspiration came from a conversation with Delisi Friday — if you're not connected with her on LinkedIn, go find her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delisifriday/
Next week: the trust account. Three cases, three perpetrators, one warning that applies to all of them.
Stolen From Within — all four episodes:
Episode 1 (Oct 7): She Worked There for Six Years. She Stole $839,000. Nobody Noticed.
Episode 2 (Oct 14): He Signed the Partner's Name 806 Times.
Episode 3 (Oct 21): They All Had Access to the Trust Account. That Was the Problem.
Episode 4 (Oct 28): The Checks Were Right There. Nobody Was Looking.
Source: DOJ U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California press releases: August 8, 2023; November 20, 2023; March 14, 2024. All facts verified against primary sources.
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