Filing A SAR For Suspected Employee Theft

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Question:

A teller came up short $400 on his last day of work. He is not the only suspect. The police are investigating. Should we file an SAR if we are not listing the teller as the sole suspect and maybe not a suspect at all?

Answer:

Answer by Jim Bedsole:

You have 30 days from the date you discover facts that lead to a SAR to file the SAR. I'd recommend using that time to focus your investigation and narrow down to whether you reasonably believe the teller took the money or not. If you reasonably believe he/she did, file the SAR. Otherwise, don't file.

Answer:

Answer by Ken Golliher:

Jim is correct, the time you have available to investigate is a resource, use it. However, unless you are going to list at least one employee as a suspect, filing a SAR is not appropriate for this amount.Just for the sake of posterity, I am in no way suggesting that filing a SAR is an automatic response on teller shortages, unless of course you also automatically file on loan officers with charged off loans.

First published on BankersOnline.com 06/2/03