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Hi, I'm Barrett

How I caught an employee stealing $30,000 from me

Published 6 months ago • 1 min read

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Last week I did a "spur of the moment" tweet about the time an employee try to steal $30,000 from me. It got bigtime engagement so I figured I'd expand on the story here.
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This person was a 3-year employee of the company and in the last 6-months there we're a few warnings and conversations about attitude and overstepping. After a final snap, verbally assaulting another employee, it was time to pull the plug.
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They didn't take the news well and we're surprisingly blind-sided (not sure how this is possible given their behavior).
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A few days later we get a letter from their attorney...we're being sued for an "unpaid bonus of $10,000" which was allegedly promised to them. In Massachusetts these are paid out at 3x or $30,000 in this case.
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Massachusetts is a VERY employee friendly state and it's near impossible to win so we wanted this to go away. The attorney presented a letter from my partner guaranteeing the $10,000...
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I was shocked -- NO WAY we would write that in a letter. A $30,000 check to an ex-employee was gonna sting. I was determined to get to the bottom of it.
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I started sleuthing and logged into the company email and Google Drive where I found the ex-employee edited the real letter literally adding the line about a $10,000 bonus (and some other BS) -- completely fabricated!

They we're too dumb to know Google Drive keeps a complete history of all edits and you can revisit any old version!
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I made a Loom video showing the fraud taking place in real time -- step-by-step. Better yet, the employee tried to secure a mortgage with the same letter! Double fraud!
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I sent the video to their attorney -- suit immediately dropped.

Moral of the story: don't be an idiot.

Hi, I'm Barrett

I've bootstrapped multiple seven-figure companies and am sharing hard-earned lessons and insights about entrepreneurship.

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